Neutral wire hot (Voltage in Neutral wire)?

You may be making an assumption that the wire you're calling a "neutral" is in fact a neutral. Keep in mind that in some electrical wiring applications, the white wire (which typically is the neutral) is used as a power leg. I believe this is done sometimes with three way switches, etc...

If your bare (uninsulated) wire is "hot" start worrying.

EDIT: Thanks for the "polite putdown" remodeler. As you indicated in the beginning of your response, the white wire IS sometimes used as a "hot" wire, just as I, and others, answered. Had I instructed someone to use the white wire as a hot without marking it as such, I think I'd have been more deserving of your criticism.

If you open the neutral in the circuit you get full voltage to one of the white wires. The neutral wire is a path for the electricity back from the load to the service. Under normal conditions there can be a small voltage between the neutral and the ground wire. This voltage drop due to the resistance and the amps in the white wire. It depends on how far the white wire is from the service and the load. The ground should only be connected to the white wire at the service, breaker box. the white and neutral are not to be connected any where else. You are probably getting static shocks because the air is dry from heating and you are touching the metal screw on the switch box. The box and the frame of the switch must be grounded. If the neutral is from the light and you disconnect the wires, you will get 117 volts to ground and to the other neutral.

It is not uncommon to find a white and a black wire going to a switch. They are both hot leads and whoever wired that way got lazy. If this is the case,, what they have done is use romex cable to go to a wall switch and use both the black and the white as hots. What they SHOULD have done when doing that is to wrap the white with black tape or paint it black. In new construction, it is no longer allowed by code to do this, btw.

If the white wires you have found are going to switch boxes or to a switched fixture, they aren't neutral lines at all. They are hot leads installed be a lazy electrician.

Edit: You know, sometimes this site amazes me. As of this time, everyone who has answered this question has a thumbs down except Steve who has three thumbs up. And he gave incorrect info. A white wire is never supposed to be used as a hot wire. EVER! If a white wire IS used as a hot it should be painted or taped to a different color. Every once in a while, I have to take a break from here. People giving wrong answers here are way too common. The biggest two categories where this happens are electrical and "what direction does a ceiling fan turn to blow air down". Btw, the correct answer is CCW.

If the neutral is shorted to hot wire,breaker WILL trip if it 's any good.A neutral is never hot.Some jack legs use the white as a hot but then it's a hot , not a neutral.In that case the white wire should be marked as a hot wire.It's sounds as if you need to find a friend with some electrical skill,not trying to be smart but electricity is dangerous if one doesn't have a good understanding of it.

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RE:

Neutral wire hot (Voltage in Neutral wire)?

Hello guys,

I just bought a house, and not minding working on it. However, this trouble shooting is killing me :(. I have all the junction boxes, outlets open and all the appliances disconnected (on that circuit only).

The problem is that some things are working on this circuit, and some...

The most common thing is that the two circuits are sharing a neutral and somewhere down the line you have lost the neutral, so it is causing the neutral to carry 120 volts. Check all neutral connections for these two circuits.

You are saying that white(nuetral) is checking hot. Does this mean that if you take a reading on the black(hot) wire you read no voltage? If all are on the same circuit and they are hot just live nuetral the feed for that receptacle may be reversed at the receptacle prior to that one.

Hot And Neutral Wires

sounds like a loose wire, u should try and tighten the wires on the circuit, (loose wires causes fires) also would it be possible ur wires r beside hot pipes? if u cant get to the bottom of it soon u should an electrician to test the circuit.

Sounds cool