I have two breakers in my panel that someone has connected white wires too. I reidentified the wires with black tape for the time being.

Everything is working but I am a bit freaked by seeing the white wires on the breakers, how concerned should I be about this at this point?

 

Double poled breakers?
Did the right thing by remarking with tape.

 

Not double poles unfortunetly, these are supplying regular 120 branch circuits.

I know you can reidentify a white in a switch loop with tape but I am sure on a breaker this is a bad situation.....

 

Are they coiled wires, as in GFCI breakers? Or do they leave the panel? If they leave the panel, how many other wires are in the same cable, and where are they connected within the panel?

 

They aren't gfci breakers either. They are standard 120 breakers. The white wires are the ungrounded conductors feeding to my kitchen and dining room respectively in conduit (not cable)....

So obviously against code... is my reidentifying them with tape in the panel sufficient? Or is it imperative that I have this all torn out and rewired?

Wherein lies the hazard in this screwy situation?

 

What other color wires are on the receptacles? The color codes are to identify function, the electrons have no idea of the insulation color.

 

Once it branches out to the recepticles on those two circuits everything is standard color connected to the device.

In the panel these two circuits are part of a multiwire branch circuit. There is 6 wires in the pipe. The two reidentified whites, a black (hot) for another circuit (so that's power to 3 circuits), there is another orange that loops unspliced thru the panel between two conduits (switch leg I think) and then there are 2 neutrals (neutral for 1 circuit and the shared neutral for the other two circuits (with the screwy ungrounded color).

To make things even more confusing, one of those two neutrals is a YELLOW! and it lands on the busbar.

I wish I knew what the intentions were of the ******* who wired this. But yes the electrons don't know insulation color but I do and this makes me nervous....

 

Does the yellow neutral go to and terminate (at a wire nut or screw terminal) in the same box up in the house as the hot white?

If so, carefully label things, unhook those two wires at both ends, and exchange them.

 

at least one of the ungrounded whites and the yellow on the busbar are in the same device box. However, there are two other junction boxes between there and the panel so it might not be that easy for me.

FWIW, is stuff like this at all common in an old home? Color blind electrician perhaps?

 

Or ignorant previous homeowner.

 

Or someone using whatever was available or leftover from a job.