Picrel is a wall outlet that I want to install a smart switch but the wires in the back is a black and white pair twisted together which doesn't show up behind other wall switches in my house, is this a shit wiring job or is that a shitty pass for a neutral wire in this wall box?
Here's another wall switch look ma no ground jesus frick
Black folk doing niggrawork.
>Picrel is a wall outlet
No, picrel is a SPST switch.
Which probably controlled two items, because one of them is bypassed with a splice and is now always on.
Gotcha, thanks. We have no neutral wire then, this old house was wired weird
>no neutral wire
The white is the neutral.
You have two circuits. One is switched on the switch.
The other USED TO BE switched, but is now connected straight through
Maybe you shouldn't be playing with electricity.
No, I'm not an electrician but that makes little difference now, just have to find a compatible smart switch that works with no neutral wire like it says it needs
>The white is the neutral.
No it isn't. It's directly connected to a switch.
The wire that is supposed to be the neutral is a switch leg. There is no neutral in that pic.
This is likely the simplest fricking source-lamp-switch circuit in the world. The kind you use to teach children in elementary school.
And you're not comprehending it.
Look, when you're done fricking around with the screwdriver, just don't try to force the breaker closed down in the basement. If it wants to pop open, let it pop open.
>This is likely the simplest fricking source-lamp-switch circuit in the world. The kind you use to teach children in elementary school.
>And you're not comprehending it.
>Look, when you're done fricking around with the screwdriver, just don't try to force the breaker closed down in the basement. If it wants to pop open, let it pop open.
Go ahead and identify where I am wrong. Go ahead and find the neutral in OP's wall. People as dumb as you are why it's a code violation to use the wire marked as a grounded conductor as an ungrounded conductor. You are why people aren't allowed to wire switches the way OP's switch is wired. Just so you don't get your dick stuck in the ceiling fan trying to understand what is going on.
You're welcome, by the way. I'm glad we can keep amateurs like you safe.
Why do I bother on this board?
You obviously don't know what a switch loop is. One wire is you hot and the other wire is your return. If that white wire was a neutral then you would be shorting the circuit and tripping the breakers or fuse every time you flip that switch.
just keep typing here
as long as you're busy incorrecting about this, you won't be leading someone into an actually dangerous situation
Just because you see two sets of wire in there doesn't automatically make it a power in and a return. I doubt you have any electrical experience because switch loops were quite common in older houses.
Here is an illustration so your feeble mind can try to comprehend it.
this. it's called a switch loop you neanderthals. it used to be an incredibly common way to wire a light.
The neutral is the return you moronic ape Black person
>The neutral is the return you moronic ape Black person
Are you the same one that never answered me here?
>Go ahead and identify where I am wrong.
Because I see lots of name calling and acting like a jackass but absolutely no mention to how people who are right in this thread are actually wrong. No counter argument, just blah blah I troll u blah blah.
If you aren't attempting to troll outside of /b/, use your words. If you just want to use adult words because this is your first unsupervised time since getting banned from the call of duty lobby, try this shit in /b/. There is a place for you. But it isn't PrepHole.
No. And the neutral is the return. You moronic ape Black person.
Wrong pic
>Wrong pic
Also, you didn't read or maybe you didn't understand:
>If that white wire was a neutral then you would be shorting the circuit and tripping the breakers or fuse every time you flip that switch.
You are moronic. The white wire in this box is joined to the main voltage (black) at the junction box to the fixture. The black wire in this box is joined to the hot for the fixture itself. The neutral for the fixture is joined to the neutral (white) at the junction box to complete the circuit back to the panel. When you flip the switch, it switches the black wire to “hot” and the fixture turns on.
There must be another fixture or possibly an outlet that was switched on at that location. They just decided to bypass the switch, and now the “switched hot” is always hot
There are no neutrals in that box, unless you want to count the ground wire kek
More than likely the white would be the hot and the black would be the return but that is exactly what I am saying. If it wasn't a return then it would be a dead short.
Code is the other way around. Cannot use "ungrounded conductor"-colored wires (i.e. hot) as grounded conductors (i.e. neutral). You are definitely allowed to tag a white wire with red or black (or yellow, or...) tape and call it ungrounded. Local code might not allow it in new work and remodels, as a way of getting things right the first time around, but it is allowed in old work.
>You are definitely allowed to tag a white wire with red or black (or yellow, or...) tape and call it ungrounded
And when you do that, it is no longer a
>wire marked as a grounded conductor
because it has been permanently marked to show that it is not a grounded conductor.
Which hasn't been done in OP's pics.
>two switch loops
>Yes you have neutral
No neutral.
Rather than try to guess what’s going on by the looks, you need to use a voltmeter, and flipping the breaker to really understand.
Follow this anon's advice, determine which breaker this circuit is on and note it clearly on the box (don't use a description like "computer room"). You will save yourself and every other dummy a lot of trouble in the future.
a lot of houses built pre 1940's have boxes with hot and neutral only. Given that people of that era did not have many items that had heavy draws, the wires were often sheathed in cloth and lacked grounds. This box looks like it has cloth sheathing as well. If possible you should chase that line to the breaker and see if it's tied in to romex on the way...
I have a lot of fun stuff to learn...
That’s not cloth wiring. The conductors themselves would be wrapped with fiber, the ones in the picture have plastic insulation. It looks like the old “snake skin” wiring. It is some kind of cloth dipped in tar or something, but it’s generally not a problem unlike actual cloth wiring.
What it needs, btw
So your problem is the colors don't match...?
PrepHole electrical threads are extremely painful to look at. I guess just seeing diy and electrical in the same sentence is enough to make me cringe. Either you know what you're doing or you don't, if you don't then fricking hire an electrician
>PrepHole electrical threads are extremely painful to look at.
The funny thing is that residential wiring is monkey level complexity, but the simplest things are beyond the typical OP as well as half of the helpful zoomers. I used to chime in on the 3-way switch threads, and crap like this one, but I eventually realized those threads are similar to pro-wrestling. Too stupid to be entertaining unless you are an idiot, so now I skim a bit then hide it.
thats too much romex jacket in that box
historically neutrals dont go to a switch, there's no need
code only requires it because of gay smart switches