How many neutral wires

Firstly, I am going to assume that the original wiring was done by a licensed electrician. So called common wires or neutral if you prefer simply completes the circuit back to the panel. If multiple circuits are going to a box all the grounds would be bound together, but the commons would be on a separate circuit so it sounds like you have just one circuit.

In your question you have used the word dimmers in the plural. If this is on the same light you can't do that unless you are using a special set of dimmers designed to communicate electronically together and would come as a set with directions.

So I'll assume that the dimmers are controlling one light each and therefore are a single pole light dimmer.

If there is a 3-way circuit you should hire an electrician as they're tricky when you haven't done them before. However, single pole switches under current electrical code are simple because they must be wired in line with the hot wire so the hot wire in is the black wire coming from the panel and the hot wire out goes to the light. The only time that a switch should be connected to a white wire is if the wires are a switch leg which only occurs when the power goes directly to the box that the light fixture is attached to and the switch leg runs down to the single pole switch as a two wire bundle one white and one black.

If this were the case both wires would be connected to black at the light box and the white wire should be recoded by either black tape or permanent marker for the last two inches at each end. So I think that the answer to your question is ignore the white wires and determine which hot wire goes to your light and which hot wire goes to the breaker panel and connect each to the appropriate screw on the switch.

Don't forget to connect the ground wire to the switch again assuming that this is plastic sheathed wire NM or non-metallic and plastic boxes. Metal conduit wiring is grounded through the switch body and it is perfectly kosher to bring NM wire to metal box with the proper cable clamp and then connect the ground to the box with a screw.

Then all devices would be grounded through their body. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. In a multi-gang box, are neutral wires paired with specific hot wires? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 2 months ago. Active 3 years, 11 months ago. Viewed k times.

To tell if your home has ground wire, check your outlets. If your outlets have three prongs, then your home has ground wire. If there are only two prongs, then ground wire may not be utilized. If the latter is the case, we recommend consulting with Roman Electric to help determine if your home can be retrofitted with new ground wire. Check back at Roman Electric for more electrical wiring tips! And contact us for affordable and quality wiring and rewiring services.

Close Menu. Looking for commercial services? Hot Wire Hot wire is used as the initial power feed to a circuit. Neutral Wire Once hot wire has initialized the beginning of a circuit, there must be another wire to complete the circuit. Ground Wire So, with hot and neutral already being used to make a circuit, what role is left? On rare occasions a small sub panel may be added to cure this condition.

Many homes have neutral bars that have too many neutral wires in one hole or slot. Generally this does not create a problem for the homeowner, however, it is an easy fix and most home inspectors recommend correcting the issue. In most instances a sub-panel should not have the Neutral bar grounded to the sub-panel, The good news is that it easy to fix by It is amazing how rodents can get into an electrical panel.

Keeping rodents, bees and and other vermin out of an electrical panel is wise. Additional Resources. It is common even in homes with neutral wiring, that not all switch locations have a neutral wire. For maximum flexibility, especially if planning to add a lot of smart dimmers, you really should take a look at the Lutron RA2 Select product line.

It's more expensive than Caseta, but uses the same app based software and integrations with HomeKit and other systems. It does "require" purchase through an electrician or dealer, but is widely sold bu electrical distributors or online sources to "anyone".

Is it now a building code that all new homes and businesses have a neutral wire? What dleany said. You should pull this article and re-write it. It's really poorly researched. You don't explain what a neutral actually is despite the title, why the code was changed to include a neutral in every switch box, no mention of local building codes and how that affects when it was required in your area, etc.

I'm also an electrician and was mildly interested in an in depth discussion of the neutral wire and was sincerely disappointed about the article. Plus the photo at the top is of an exposed outlet, not a switch. All outlets have a neutral wire, before and after the 80's, or they wouldn't work.