The White Wire Is The HOT | THE HANDYMAN |

[dutch]

You are absolutely right. Black tape on white wire is common for those situations. Welcome back to the USA/Canada.

[Newman]

When I worked as an electrician, when you used a 2 wire like you did, we called them a switch leg. All it did was send power to the switch and back from the switch. Every now and then, you run into some places where the power is sent to the switch first and then to the light. In those cases, both blacks in the switch box were hot and the white wire (neutral) is just junctioned together in the box with a wire nut to feed the neutral to the light.

[timothymiller]

Its called a switch loop. NEVER GET CAUGHT UP ON COLORS ALWAYS TEST THE WIRES TO FIND THE FEED. COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

[jasonrawls]

Yep the standard practice would be to use the white as the constant hot and the black as the switch leg in that situation.

[my.o]

Words can't express the stress you just relieved. Very valuable information. Will share with the world!!

[PotatosPotatoes]

I'm confused about something. Why do people watch your videos if all they want to do is criticize you? I tend to watch because I like to learn new things from new perspectives.

[michaellane]

My Dad taught me to put black tape on a "hot" white wire 50+ years ago when we were doing remodel electrical work for a friend. I will say that I NEVER assume that either wire is not hot unless I test it with a "pen" type power tester. Another great video. P.S. Never trust a customer to shut off the power to a circuit you are about to work on. I did once and got bitten!

[robertdemaine]

Current nec requires a neutral at the switch, switch loops are no longer permissable.

[chodkowski]

How to verify your hot just put one probe to ground and touch your other probe to your other wires. You’ll see your hot wire. On your switches and receptacles white for bright screw, black wire for brass screw and green for ground. Black for Brass, White for Bright and Green for Ground. When you look at your duplex receptacles they are 2 different sizes. The smaller one is hot. Or just buy a small receptacle tester to tell you if it’s wired correctly.

[HB-yqgy]

Handyman you're the best teacher. I learned from a guy like you back in the late 80s doing siding. The first day they started me off on the brake & i went through six rolls of coil! But I was determined to learn. 3 years later I was the Brake King!

[Darylvb]

When I’ve used the white as the hot I’ve always wrapped a strip of black electrical tape around it near the termination.

[benjaminhollis]

I use black marker to indicate the WHITE is HOT.

[theothermarshal]

My dad was an electrician and I grew up a 'wire monkey' helping him on all kinds of jobs... I am, indeed, over 50 and I own the same book. I laughed when the title came up in my YouTubes feed and suspected you had been attacked by 'experts' over the wiring remodel and the internets didn't fail me! Quality infotainment here for sure. Thanks for sharing this response and, judging by the 'thumbs down', there are a few experts who still have their feelings hurt. Better to have hurt feelings than the shocking realization of error caused by assumptions on a remodel.

[VolpeInCalze]

Yes, that's correct. Article 200.7 C1
Same goes for a 3 way switch. If you use a wire with white insulation, it's the suply and must be marked as suply.

[cba]

Also be aware that if you are working on a live circuit with the switch off you can still get zapped by the neutral wire if you provide a better path to ground and something else is using power on that circuit.

[oldtimefarmboy]

Residential alternating current (ac) transformers create 220 ac volts. Look into a breaker box and you will see two black (hot) wires that connect to a 100 amp to 200 amp or greater double breaker that provides power to two central bus bars that your household breakers mount to. You will also see a white (neutral) wire that connects to a bus bar on one side of the breaker box.


The two black (hot) wires come off each end of the transformer coil. The white (neutral) wire comes off the center of the transformer coil.


Most household devices use 110 ac volts to operate. You get that 110 ac volts by running a black wire from a single breaker connected to one hot bus bar to the device and a white wire that runs back to the breaker box and connects to the neutral bus bar. You get 110 ac volts because running the current through the white wire means you are only using half of the coil in the transformer and get only half of the voltage.


The two central bus bars are designed so that every other breaker mounted next to each other connects to the other central bus bar. That is why devices that require 220 ac volts (electric stoves, dryers, etcetera) have two breakers mounted next to each other. By doing that you are connecting to both of the two black (hot) wires coming off both ends of the transformer coil and getting the full 220 ac volts the transformer creates.


Only the ground wire can be considered not to be hot since it is there in case a wire with current running through it touches the case of a device that you might touch. Since electricity follows the path of least resistance, the electricity will flow through the ground wire to the ground bus bar which is attached to a metal rod that was driven into the ground which provides a lot less resistance to current flow than a human body.


So black and white wires carry ac electrical current from and back too the transfomer and are always considered dangerous to touch when the electricity is turned on. To be safe, ALL wires in your house should be considered dangerous until the circuit is broken at the breaker box.

[klmbuilders]

You're correct. I've seen this and have done it myself in my remodeling jobs. Saves wire too and it ain't getting any cheaper. Add 3-way switch wiring to really confuse the naysayers! :-)

[bskelly]

What you’re describing is very common on older homes in the Midwest where I’m from. Living in the southwest now and would never be allowed. Just have to know the age of the home you’re working on and have a good understanding of electrical circuits. If you see a wire connected to a light switch its going to be hot at some point! Good job!

[timfalardeau]

You need to start running 3 wire for your switch legs. As of 2017, you are rquired to have a neutral in EVERY box to accomodate "smart devices" going forward. In that instance, your light box would see the red load wire connect to the black line, and the white carry the neutral to the switch box.

[CBSBKKAMcomputerhelp]

We had this exact same wiring configuration at an old home that we used to live in at Palm Drive in Mount Dora Florida. That house was built in 1958, never remodeled. We had old ungrounded wiring and they used the ceiling light/fan boxes as junction boxes and all outlets were at end of cables or "arms" of the circuit and the light switches for the fan/light were wired exactly like this but without ground wires. All the electrical boxes were ungrounded metal boxes too.

I forgot to mention that It had a "Pushmatic" breaker box. It's not a fuse box and not a normal type of breaker box either. I know that these "Pushmatic" breaker boxes are unusual too.