This is the theory: if reverse polarity occurs, the designed diode will then conduct and short the power supply in order to ground and trigger the fuse to blow up. This protects your equipment. This should work well if the equipment has been designed properly.

A battery is a source of energy which provides a push – a voltage – of energy to get the current flowing in a circuit. A bulb uses the electrical energy provided by the battery, but does not use current. When the energy in the battery is used up there is no current and the bulb does not light up.

A battery has a positive terminal (+ pole) and a negative terminal (− pole). Interconnection of electrical devices nearly always require correct polarity to be maintained.

Electrical Components and Reverse Polarity The reverse polarity may also damage the electrical wires, parts and/or the electronic components of the vehicle in which the battery is situated. Possibly the component at risk of the most severe damage would be the alternator, which can be expensive to replace.

If the white wire is connected to the smaller slot on the outlet, then the outlet was wired backwards. The fix is as simple as swapping the wires around on the outlet. If the wiring appears correct at the outlet, this means the white wire is now the hot, and a problem exists somewhere upstream from the outlet.

Tip #1: An easy way to identify the wires in your wall box is by looking at the color. Tip #2: The Load wire is usually coming from the top of the box. The Line wire is usually coming from the bottom of the box. Tip #3: Before removing the switch, test each wire with a voltage tester.

If you don’t have a load then the dumb switches wouldn’t control anything. The load is the device being controlled, like a light. If there was no load wire going to a device then the switch wouldn’t do anything. The color of the wire does not determine Line / Load / Neutral.

At the second device, the line is the power source coming in from the first device; the load is the wire going out to the third device on the circuit, and so on. The same meaning can apply to the device itself. The line side of an outlet is where you connect the incoming source power.

You will get a reading if one wire is hot and the other isn’t. However, if both wires are hot, the reading will be zero. However, if you need to rewire a light switch or a plug socket, you may occasionally come across two black wires. It’s essential that you determine which black wire is hot before proceeding.

The bare or green-wrapped ground wires serve as a backup to divert the power safely away in case of an electrical fault. In most cases, two black wires will be attached to the switch’s two terminal screws.

But here’s the catch: If you connect the circuit wires to the wrong terminals on an outlet, the outlet will still work but the polarity will be backward. When this happens, a lamp, for example, will have its bulb socket sleeve energized rather than the little tab inside the socket.

1 Answer. The receptacle manufacturer should document how many wires can be put where. In general, if there are screws, you can use at most one wire per screw. For quickwire/backwire holes, you can only use one wire per hole, and further, that one wire can only be 14 gauge.

(Basically, two hot wires are sharing a neutral wire.) This circuit has also been referred to as: The Edison Circuit. Common Neutral Circuit.

mechanical engineer. There is no way that a hot wire could have been twisted together with neutrals. There would be a direct short and a blown breaker. There are cases where a white wire can be hot, but it really should have some black tape on it to identify it as hot.

Yes it’s okay. It’s called a multiwire branch circuit, and when done according to the rules, is perfectly safe. The double-pole breaker is required, as are some details with how the circuit is installed but if you have a licensed electrical contractor these details will be handled no problem.

two circuits

If your home has a double tapped circuit breaker, this means that two wires (conductors) are connected to one specific circuit breaker or one terminal on the same circuit breaker. Only certain manufacturers of circuit breakers—such as Square D and Cutler Hammer—produce circuit breakers that can accommodate two wires.

No, you should never use a ground wire as a neutral. Yes, the ground wire will function as a neutral wire and the ground wire and neutral wire are bonded together at the panelboard. So since the ground and neutral wires are essentially the same and bonded together, why would you not use the ground wire as a neutral?