neutral

[chicagowood]

I have a house that has 3 hot wires for every neutral wire. Is this unsafe or not up to code 1 electrican told me it isn't right that there must be 2 hot per neutral max but he could not tell me where in the code it was I will get it fixed if need be I'm just looking for a code refrence or if it's a just his common practice.....thanks
Pat

 

[ronaldrc]

Re: neutral

If its not three phase it shouldn't have three hot circuits to neutral, only two and they have to be from opposite lines.You can have one circuit from line #1 and one circuit from line #2 and use one neutral for these two.

Please learn a little more about basic electricity before doing it by yourself,this is not common sense stuff but it is not as difficult as a lot let on either, we all have to learn.

Looked at your profile said woodworker. Your electrician told you the correct answer.

The code does give reference to this, but that would be useless.Just allow at the most two lines or circuits to a neutral better yet if you can run a separate neutral per hot unless in conduit.

[ October 16, 2005, 12:32 AM: Message edited by: ronaldrc ]

 

[gudguyham]

Re: neutral

It may be a little unusual to have a 3 phase panel in a residence, but not impossible. If your panel is in fact 3 phase it is OK to have 3 hot lines to one neutral. But the hot lines must be indentified so they don't get mixed up. You don't want to load down the neutral by having the phases connected such that the neutral will be overloaded. Why don't you check to see if you have a 3 phase panel? If you can see where the power comes in the house, look at the wires coming in from the pole (if it is overhead). If it is 3 phase you will see 3 insulated wires and one un insulated wire usually used as a support as well for the other wires. If you have only a single phase service you will only see 2 insulated wires coming in from the pole. If you have an underground service, you may have to open the panel up and look inside there to see how many wires you have coming in there. It is IMPORTANT to remember that anytime you see a red wire on a circuit breaker in a panel and you happen to be moving wires around on breakers in that panel, you must be aware NOT to have the red wire on the same phase as the associated black wire if they are sharing a neutral wire. Also, you can use a meter to measure the voltage, if you have a 3 phase panel, you would measure 3 legs to neutral at 120volts and between any 2 hot legs, you will read about 208 volts.