How To Determine Line And Load Wires

If you notice that both are the same color for you please use the guideline below to determine which wire is which.

How to determine line and load wires. And these terms are relative to the location of the device in the circuit since the load wire. The rest are your. The white wire is the neutral wire which takes any unused electricity and current and sends them back to the breaker panel. The hot and neutral lines should be two distinct colors but the colors can vary for the different wires.

Learn how to identify wires for your safety. To determine the line vs load wires you need to take note of how everything is connected and write it down then disconnect the wires and use a volt meter to see which black wires have power. Once you do this follow it back to where you see the outer sheeting covering all three wires white black and bare copper ground in that romex wire and this is your power supply in. There is no terminal or label on the wires coming from the wall box i know which wire coming from the switch is which.

The color for the line wire is usually black and load wire is usually red black or blue less common. A line and a load wire may be in the same junction box depending on where the line source conductor comes in and where it is going next but the schematic for making a multiple 3 way and 4 ways work is always the same. The plain or it can sometimes be green wire is the ground wire which will take electricity back to the breaker panel then outside to a rod that s buried in the ground. Identifying electrical wiring properly is an important step when replacing a light fixture installing an outlet or handling other electrical work.

The terms are used in the context of a single device and electrical box so that the wires that deliver power into the box are described as the line wires the upstream wires or the incoming wires while the wires passing onward to other devices are described as load downstream or outgoing wires. Line coming in on one 3 way and load going out on the other. I have an outlet box with 4 wires two black hotwires and two white neutral.