mikeyr
Well-known member
late in 2008, I hijacked this thread http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27202&highlight=neutral about a neutral issue. I did not want to continue the old thread since I had inadvertently hijacked it but the issue just bit me in the ***.
short quick story (more details in above thread), building a garage, idiot electrician (or am I the idiot for hiring him?), I try to hook up a smoke alarm in the garage that is connected to the kitchen so they both go off at the same time. The smoke alarm wont work, I find there is only 60volts in the line, not 110/120, I google it and it indicates a loose neutral, I call the electrician and all he does is run a neutral wire to the smoke detector back to the sub-panel and voila it works, since its powered from the house main panel and he runs the neutral to the garage sub-panel, I DONT like the solution but I dont know enough to say its wrong, just know enough to know it feels wrong. I want him off my property so I let it slide.
Here we are a year later and I am trying to trace a 4-way switch for my garage lights, they are powered by the house main panel and I don't understand the wiring so I call a new electrician. I swear he is there less than 5 minutes before he says "there is a neutral problem here", it turns out the idiot shared 1 neutral across 3 circuits, 2 A circuits and one B circuit. I understand DC and I am vaguely aware of AC A and B circuits, I kind of vaguely know the principle but I know enough to know that share one neutral across 3 circuits is not good. More research and it turns out one wall of plugs is powered by the house main panel and there is no friggin ground wire coming from the house for that circuit, just 2 wires, the ground is completely missing.
Getting it all fixed, going to run a proper neutral wires and put those plugs on the sub-panel and I am pissed beyond belief, I was right, there was something very wrong and I believed that a-hole when he said he fixed it, he did come with very good recommendations but I did not like his work.
Going to have this new electrician "inspect" the main house also, hard to do with all the drywall and hidden wires but there is good access under the house and in the attic, just to make me feel better.
I am also wondering what I should do...this was a permitted installation and was inspected by the city ! but I did note that the inspector and my electrician were pretty good friends. Ignore it and just be thankful that nothing bad happened or pursue it. By the way what could have happened if I had used those circuits ? I am only now finishing the garage so they were not used until now.
short quick story (more details in above thread), building a garage, idiot electrician (or am I the idiot for hiring him?), I try to hook up a smoke alarm in the garage that is connected to the kitchen so they both go off at the same time. The smoke alarm wont work, I find there is only 60volts in the line, not 110/120, I google it and it indicates a loose neutral, I call the electrician and all he does is run a neutral wire to the smoke detector back to the sub-panel and voila it works, since its powered from the house main panel and he runs the neutral to the garage sub-panel, I DONT like the solution but I dont know enough to say its wrong, just know enough to know it feels wrong. I want him off my property so I let it slide.
Here we are a year later and I am trying to trace a 4-way switch for my garage lights, they are powered by the house main panel and I don't understand the wiring so I call a new electrician. I swear he is there less than 5 minutes before he says "there is a neutral problem here", it turns out the idiot shared 1 neutral across 3 circuits, 2 A circuits and one B circuit. I understand DC and I am vaguely aware of AC A and B circuits, I kind of vaguely know the principle but I know enough to know that share one neutral across 3 circuits is not good. More research and it turns out one wall of plugs is powered by the house main panel and there is no friggin ground wire coming from the house for that circuit, just 2 wires, the ground is completely missing.
Getting it all fixed, going to run a proper neutral wires and put those plugs on the sub-panel and I am pissed beyond belief, I was right, there was something very wrong and I believed that a-hole when he said he fixed it, he did come with very good recommendations but I did not like his work.
Going to have this new electrician "inspect" the main house also, hard to do with all the drywall and hidden wires but there is good access under the house and in the attic, just to make me feel better.
I am also wondering what I should do...this was a permitted installation and was inspected by the city ! but I did note that the inspector and my electrician were pretty good friends. Ignore it and just be thankful that nothing bad happened or pursue it. By the way what could have happened if I had used those circuits ? I am only now finishing the garage so they were not used until now.