Does a light bulb need a neutral?

A neutral wire is the most common requirement of an automated light switch. Only switches that don’t require a neutral will limit you to incandescent. A neutral is required for those of us using energy efficient bulbs under 20w.

Does it matter which way a light bulb is wired?

If you wonder why you have to identify and connect the hot and neutral wires correctly in a lamp, read on. True, the lamp will usually work either way. But the issue is safety. Normally, power (voltage) comes through the tab on the socket base.

What happens if you use a ground as a neutral?

“Is it ok to use earth or ground as a neutral in AC?” 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. Using earth or ground as neutral is neither safe nor legal.

What happens if live and neutral wires are the wrong way round on a plug?

If your outlet’s polarity is reversed, it means that the neutral wire is connected to where the hot wire is supposed to be. There is always electricity flowing out of an outlet with reversed polarity, even if an appliance is supposed to be off.

Can you wire multiple lights one plug?

You can do this light switch wiring in one of two ways. The most common is to daisy-chain the light fixtures by connecting them to each other and hooking the first one up to the switch. The other way to wire multiple lights to one switch is to connect all of them directly to the switch in a “home run” configuration.

What happens if neutral and ground touch?

The neutral is always referenced to ground at one, and ONLY one, point. If you touch the neutral to ground anywhere else, you will create the aforementioned ground loop because the grounding system and the nuetral conductor are now wired in parallel, so they now carry equal magnitudes of current.