Understanding an Open or Loaded Neutral

hello everybody I'm Terri Peterman the internet electrician and welcome to another one of my video shorts on current topics here on YouTube and at the website electrical dash online.com today we're going to talk about an open or loaded neutral scenario couple weeks back I got an email from my good friend Rob and he told me that he had 120 volts showing on a neutral wire that was connected to some pot lights so after talking to him a bit and him explaining that he had on earned 20 volts at the hot but as well as on the neutral and he was a little worried about it before he connected his switch back up so I quizzed him up on what had been going on up to that point and I soon realized that what he had was what we call an open or a loaded neutral and it just emphasizes why we always need to shut the breaker off at the source when we're working on electrical circuits now I'm going to explain how this open or loaded neutral situation can happen by the use of my demonstration board here I've got a live circuit I've got a switch here that's fed from a receptacle below up to the switch and then up to this light so I'm gonna set up the situation that Rob had and using my meter I'm gonna show you why he had 120 volts on his neutral and what you have to do to correct that starting with shut off the power when you're working with electricity okay so here's what happened in a normal situation and I've got the power on and that's because I wouldn't be able to show you this if I didn't so don't you do it do as I say not as I do anyhow power is on here's what you should have in this normal circuit this situation with a single pole switch he's got 120 volts here in the bottom 120 volts on the top shut it off neutral to hot 120 on the bottom only nothing on the top so that's what you should see on a normal circuit nothing from neutral to ground hot to ground 120 volts both top and bottom of his switch well here's a situation Rob had further upstream he had his neutrals the splice was taken apart so he comes here and checks why he's got no light working he turned on the switch no light so he checked ground a hot well he had 120 volts to the top half of a switch 120 volts why is that light not working and he got a shock off the neutrals what started all this so then he checked his white wire and he has 120 volts so that's when he texted me and said Terry why would I have power on my neutral so I got quizzing him up a little bit and figured out that he had taken some splices apart further further up in the circuit in the junction box and that's why he has a loaded neutral the neutral is you're grounded conductor and it is actually tied to ground at your main panel and that's the only place the neutral should be at one with the ground of the earth conductor which is the bare ground conductors so without that neutral being connected your circuit is open the voltage is traveling up through the switch through the filament of the bulb back here in the neutral nowhere to go so it could go through you and give you a shock once we connect that neutral back up turn everything back on we should have the normal readings again so that's the case of the open neutral so there you have it the case of the open neutral and how can I get a shock off a neutral conductor well now you know thanks for tuning in I add new videos regularly so make sure you subscribe below and you'll be the first to know when there's new and updated material here on youtube as well as on my website so thanks for stopping by and if you like what you see please feel free to share my videos visit my website and my facebook page thanks again I'm teri Peterman the internet electrician

Channel: Terry Peterman

Views: 1,182,043

Keywords: Open Neutral, Loaded neutral, voltage on neutral, open circuit, neutral to ground voltage, white wire live, shut off breaker, hot neutral

Id: RsuezfpA-Po

Length: 4min 7sec (247 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 28 2016