General 120v duplex recept

[TTwizted]

I installed a regular duplex recept, and when I put my plug in tester it says the neutral and hot are switched. Mind u that I have been an electrician for over two years and in school going on my last two years to be a certified electrician lol. So that being said, I know how to wire a recept. I found a jbox in the attic so that's where I jumped the power from. Anyway the weird thing is it is good when my kitchen lights are off but when I turn them on it makes my neutral hot along with my hot still being hot. What could this be?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GoldDigger]

You probably connected to a switch leg or a traveler of a three way which uses a white wire and was not taped or painted black.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[ActionDave]

Have you plugged anything besides a plug tester in? Have you checked anything with a meter?

 

[ptonsparky]

As you have discovered, white wires are not always the grounded conductor nor has marking of them always been required when using NM cable.

 

[JFletcher]

Welcome to the forum. You need to check with a multi-meter to see what's truly going on. Plug testers are ok but have a lot of limitations. I had one tell me I had an open neutral when in fact the breaker was shot and only allowing ~40V thru.

If you truly have hot-hot, you either have 0V across hot and neutral, and nothing plugged in will work, or 240V, in which case it'll work really well for about a second before it goes poof.