The Hidden Danger of Switched Neutrals and Open Neutrals

00:00 intro
0:49 hot receptacle with switch off
1:12 why this is dangerous

Switched neutrals and open neutrals are among the many electrical defects we find during a home inspection. Switched neutrals allow a hot neutral, which is extremely dangerous. Instead of breaking the hot wire at the switch, sometimes the neutral wire is mistakenly broken. This allows the power to continue to the outlet presenting a severe safety issue; if someone turned the switch to the off position, the power to the outlet would not be disconnected. If someone were to come into contact with the hot side of the outlet, severe injury or death could occur.

Open neutrals are not always caused by miswiring a switch. The neutral connection can be broken in a number of ways. Any open neutral circuit presents the possibility of severe or fatal electrical shock. All electrical repairs should be made by a qualified electrician. If this was helpful, please subscribe to our YouTube channel Hawley Home Inspections LLC, and visit our website, www.HawleyHomeInspectionsLLC, for more articles and videos on home defects maintenance.

[alec]

I think the oddest open neutral I've found was in my grandfather's mortuary. The embalming pump was on a dedicated circuit but a lot of the circuits shared a common neutral buss that went back to the main panel. Place was wired in the 20s and modified heavily throughout the years. Anyway the neutral for the pump has come loose from the bus and the pump was finding neutral through the ground clamped onto the radiator. So when the pump was off the case of it was live at around 100v would drop down to 96v running. That place was always a head scratcher for me 😂😂

[Sparky-wwre]

The most bizarre case of an open neutral I found on a service call, was on a multiwire circuit in the living room. Late 1970s house, with backstab receptacles. A television set and cable box went up in smoke when the neutral on a receptacle failed when a 1500 watt electric fireplace had been used in a different receptacle, essentially placing all the loads in series with 240 volts, depending on the loads of course L1 could have low voltage while L2 could have high voltage up to 240V or vice versa. To avoid this I believe it's also required in the NEC, to pigtail the neutral when multiwire circuits are used, this is commonly seen in older kitchen from the 60s until the late 80s or early 90s but almost never used today, due to the AFCI & GFCI requirements.

[superspecialty]

How many uhs are you going to say in less than two minutes? Also, you didn’t present a solution.