cmulder
New User
- Location
- California
- Occupation
- Homeowner
So I was under the impression that neutral wires from different circuits (i.e., breaker circuits) should not be grouped together. So in my house I've noticed some screwy wiring. In this one instance they had used 2 wires (white/black/copper) to use on a 3-way switch and used the white and black wires as travelers and grouped all the whites together with another switch that was on a different breaker. This is on the second point of the 3-way switch (i.e., where the light connects to the switch). So fortunately, there was a set of wires that were not being used that ran to the first 3-way switch upstairs so I switched to using the black from that extra set of wires as a traveler. I grouped the whites from the one circuit that controlled an outside light downstairs (call it circuit "A") together and all the whites from the second circuit that controlled the 3-way switch (call it circuit "B") and connected the new "black" traveler to the upstairs switch. Downstairs light and 3-way worked fined which makes sense because those two separates switches downstairs could have been in two separate gangboxes.
Ok--so upstairs the gangbox (say gangbox 1) also has switches controlled by two separate circuits--circuit B" for the 3 way and an upstairs hall light and exhaust fan are controlled by a separate circuit (call is Circuit "C") although the exhaust fan is in a separate gangbox (call it gangbox 2) that gets its power from a set of wires going from gangbox 1 up to gangbox 2. So I grouped all the whites together from Circuit "B" and all the whites from Circuit "C" and nothing worked. I regrouped all the whites together from both circuits and everything worked. I am perplexed at why? I mean theoretically those could have been separated in 2 separate gangboxes (the 3 way in one gangbox and the other light/can in another gangbox.
Why would the separating of whites from two separate circuits do this? Its possible I "crossed" two whites from the separate boxes but I don't think so.
Ok--so upstairs the gangbox (say gangbox 1) also has switches controlled by two separate circuits--circuit B" for the 3 way and an upstairs hall light and exhaust fan are controlled by a separate circuit (call is Circuit "C") although the exhaust fan is in a separate gangbox (call it gangbox 2) that gets its power from a set of wires going from gangbox 1 up to gangbox 2. So I grouped all the whites together from Circuit "B" and all the whites from Circuit "C" and nothing worked. I regrouped all the whites together from both circuits and everything worked. I am perplexed at why? I mean theoretically those could have been separated in 2 separate gangboxes (the 3 way in one gangbox and the other light/can in another gangbox.
Why would the separating of whites from two separate circuits do this? Its possible I "crossed" two whites from the separate boxes but I don't think so.
