Use ground as a substitute for neutral

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gilamor

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In many instances I see the ground and neutral connected together, or used as a substitute for one another at an outlet or a light.
For instance if the there is no neutral in an outlet, some handyman would connect the ground to the neutral screw on the outlet so the outlet would function. Or if there is no neutral at the switch and they want to add an outlet they would use the ground instead of the neutral. Is this situation exposing a risk? What is the risk? What other problem this situation may cause?

Amor electric

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The neutral is a current carrying conductor, but at "ground" potential or close to.
By using the EGC as the neutral, you have neutral current on metal attached to the electrical system. It will and has caused fires and there is the potential for a fatal shock.
For example you use the EGC as the return neutral. An electrican is working on a circuit and opens the neutral and gets a fatal shock.
 
I will say, I got lit up a couple of months ago. I was not thinking and disconnected the neutral of a device that for some reason I thought was dormant. I got hold of the tip and got one of the worse 120v shocks I can remember. I would not recommend using a bare ground, or any other, for the return, as tempting of an easy way out as it may be. Convenience is not worth the potential.
 
Both situations present a real and present danger of electric shock. The ground and the neutral must not be connected anywhere downstream of the main service panel. Otherwise, you will have current flowing in all the equipment grounding conductors and metal conduits throughout the building.

Specifically, current should flow from the source to the load (via the ungrounded conductor), through the load, then back to the source (via the neutral or grounded conductor). If you connect a neutral wire to a ground wire, then current flowing back to the source will split, some going via the neutral, and some going via the ground. That will energize the external metal parts of anything that has a ground wire. In turn, that will make it dangerous to touch anything in the building.
 
Just to make it clear - those exceptions allow the neutral to used as a grounding conductor, but it is NEVER acceptable to use the grounding conductor as a neutral.
 
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