Most likely the neutral wire is white and the hot wire is red or black but test to make sure. However the neutral and ground wires serve two distinct purposes.
Household Electric Circuits
Which wire is neutral. Brown orange and yellow are used as hot wires and gray is used as the neutral wire in a 277480 v. Tour start here for a quick overview of. For grounding regardless of the voltage green is used. The neutral wire is connected to an earth ground. Black red and blue are used for hot wires and white is used as the neutral wire in a 120208 v circuit. In most modern fixtures the.
Neutral is usually connected to ground earth at the main electrical panel street drop or meter and also at the final step down transformer of the supply. Stack exchange network consists of 177 qa communities including stack overflow the largest most trusted online community for developers to learn share their knowledge and build their careers. In addition to neutral wires most north american circuits contain twohot wiresand a ground wire. I have a four gang box that im installing new dimmers in. If you cant find the source of a problem. Two hot wires carry electricity from the power source battery to the load in this case a lamp.
Identify the neutral wire in the fixture by looking at the wires. Like the neutral wire the ground wire is also connected to an earth ground. The hot wire has no ribbing or stripe or it may be coated with black or red insulation. In the electrical trade the conductor of a 2 wire circuit connected to the supply neutral point and earth ground is referred to as the neutral. Neutral wires should be white. The bare wire is called the ground wire.
The ground wire by contrast is sometimes not insulated since its not part of the circuit current flow. The ground is only used for safety. In polarized appliance cords the neutral wire is identified by a white stripe ribbing or white insulation. This neutral wire is insulated since it forms part of the electrical current circuit. And ground wires are often plain copper but the ground wire color can be green. This knowledge can help you pinpoint problems and connect wires to the correct terminals when making repairs.
The new dimmers require. The neutral wire then carries electricity back to the power source completing the circuit. When you open an outlet it can be useful to figure out the position of the outlet or switch in the circuit as well as the function of each wire. Currently all of the neutral white wires coming into the box are connected together and not to the dimmers. However if you see a white wire with electrical tape on it that may indicate that its being used as a hot wire. The neutral wire is bonded to the earth ground inside the panel.
Its also possible to have some other colors may come into play depending on the system.
Gallery of Which Wire Is Neutral
