Electrician Question: Breaking the Neutral

[Stolle]

Our house was built in the early 80's. I'm not sure who wired it, but it puzzles me every time I have to make minor repairs.

Yesterday I was replacing some old 8' fluorescent fixtures in the garage and found that they have the neutral broke at the switch to run 4 lights on one side of my garage. Why would a electrician break the neutral instead of the hot?

[tx_basser]

the hot could be run to a ceiling box where the lights are connected and is using the White/Black to complete the switchleg. Do I like doing it.. no, but in certain circumstances it might save romex to do it that way.

[Stolle]

They have all the hots tied together in a junction box along with all the neutrals and grounds. The neutral is broken at the switch. They still had to run the same amount of wire to the lights.

[tx_basser]

man.. it is hard to tell on some of this older stuff. I know what you mean on scratching your head. The 80's building boom was a ****show in construction industry.

[kruppa24]

ive seen some done that way in really old houses.

[WTucker]

There is no good reason to do it like that, especially on a house that age. I have seen it done on some old knob and tube houses though. It could have been the homeowner who wired it, or their buddy that is pretty much an electrician. Lol. My wife's grandfather wired his house. He made all the blacks the neutral (which he still calls negative) and the white wires are the hot.

[Mike D]

That used to be standard practice in residential.

I don’t know when they stopped doing it but our previous home was built in 2001 and it wasn’t that way.


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[Stolle]

That used to be standard practice in residential.

I don’t know when they stopped doing it but our previous home was built in 2001 and it wasn’t that way.


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Not labeling the breaker box must have been standard as well.

Oh and running the whole garage off a 15 amp breaker. Such a pain.


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[Tony Pic]

The problem with switching the neutral is you will have a whole circuit of potential( hot wire) looking for the quickest path to ground/neutral. Also if a 3 wire is used you could be breaking the neutral of the other circuit in the 3 wire cable making it inoperable.
Please, leave the red white and blues for the hots, the white for noodles and ALWAYS green or bare wire for ground.

[DarrellS]

That used to be standard practice in residential.

I don’t know when they stopped doing it but our previous home was built in 2001 and it wasn’t that way.


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What Mike said. I still see it all of time on older homes.

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[neilmc70]

Have you been in the breaker panel? Are black wires on breaker and whites on
neutral bar?

[MadHatter]

the hot could be run to a ceiling box where the lights are connected and is using the White/Black to complete the switchleg. Do I like doing it.. no, but in certain circumstances it might save romex to do it that way.

This is what I was thinking, and you can save ALOT of romex sometimes.

[Stolle]

Have you been in the breaker panel? Are black wires on breaker and whites on

neutral bar?

They are correct in the breaker box.


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