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Neutral wire acting funny

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01-13-03, 04:55 PM

Robert Nava

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Neutral wire acting funny

same circuit, coming from home run to a double switch.one switch goes to bathroom fan other goes to bathroom light.. next room, single switch.it goes to the washroom light.. next room, singlr switch.it goes to the bedroom light.

now the dilema--------- i took a shower this morning all the lights worked, even the fan...... not even ten minutes later they all stopped working. i troubleshooted the issue to see if i was getting power to the switches and i was.. when i took the switches out of the box to check my power, i went from hot to ground, got power.. i checked from neutral to ground, and got power also.. i then checked from neutral to hot and didn't get any power.. my question to you is, aren't i supposed to get power from the hot to neutral and not neutral to ground. isn't there something wrong with my neutral?

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01-13-03, 05:30 PM

John Nelson

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An open neutral will give all the symptoms you describe. Look for it. Focus on any backstab connections as these often fail first, especially when under load.

P.S. If you unplug everything on this circuit and turn off all switches, you will no longer detect voltage from the neutral to ground (unless you are getting phantom voltage).

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