Both Black And White Wires Are Hot

Why would my white and black wires both be hot they are going into my lightswitch box in my garage which operates my outside light trying to hook up new light fixture but ran into that issue and conventional wiring of the new fixture and and light switch isn t working i don t know if i m running into a switch leg wiring issue which i have read about and don t understand i just want to get the.

Both black and white wires are hot. Why would my white and black wires both be hot they are going into my lightswitch box in my garage which operates my outside light trying to hook up new light fixture but ran into that issue and conventional wiring of the new fixture and and light switch isn t working i don t know if i m running into a switch leg wiring issue which i have read about and don t understand i just want to get the. The united states has strict codes relating to home wiring including clearly defined colors on the outer casing of the wires. The white wire is the neutral or return leg of the circuit the green is the ground wire making the black or red wire the hot one. Neutral common or return.

The neutral wire can also be gray. Black means hot white signifies neutral and green indicates ground. A white wire connected to one side of a switch is not a neutral it will be and is designed to be hot when the switch is on. It is not recommended that this procedure is performed unless you understand what you are doing because getting in the middle of any live circuit can cause an electrical shock which could be fatal.

This boggled me so i checked the current in the wires and both the black and white supposedly neutral but obviously not wires are both hot. Sometimes you ll find a white wire with a piece of black electrical tape wrapped around it. Jim stewart apr 12 18 at 13 11. Why are both wires white and black hot at the outlet and light switch and even at the light in the ceiling stack exchange network stack exchange network consists of 176 q a communities including stack overflow the largest most trusted online community for developers to learn share their knowledge and build their careers.

I found the neutral wire is also hot like the black wire. The white wire goes by many names that all mean the same thing. The copper grounding wire is attached like it should. Both belonging to the same repository.

However if you need to rewire a light switch or a plug socket you may occasionally come across two black wires. The switch seems to be at the end of the run because there are only three wires in the electrical box. The white wire in for example 14 2 armored cable or 14 2 m b romex is a grounded leg not a neutral because it does not have potential to two or more ungrounded hot wires on different legs and therefore carries all the amps that appears on the single hot wire. The black wire is hot.

Power flows from the box to the outlet through the black wire and back to the box through the white one.