# Hot neutral at light fixture...



## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

Caseyrey said:


> So I'm stumped I have an outside light fixture that quit working. I checked the fixture with a widowmaker and it works. At the switch the neutral isn't hot but at the wall the neutral and hot are the same potential. When I ohm them out they show open between neutral and hot. Tomorrow I'm gonna borrow a megger from work to check them and some longer test leads to ohm out the whole neutral from wall to switch. Anyone have any other ideas to try. I'm thinking there's an open in the neutral but that doesn't explain it being hot. Thanks for the help in advance.


If the neutral is open then that explains exactly why it reads hot.

If you find the spot where the neutral is open you can measure 120 volts across the two ends of it. When the circuit neutral is open no current flows so no voltage is dropped across the load, so your neutral is raised up to the potential of the ungrounded conductor, at least up until the point where it's disconnected.

Look for a buried J-box. Or if someone went poking screws in the wall recently (new siding or something maybe) then that may have poked through the wire. That'd be a hell of a shot though.


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## Caseyrey (Jun 27, 2011)

Sorry I should've mentioned I completely removed the fixture. When it read hot they were hanging out of the box


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

Caseyrey said:


> Sorry I should've mentioned I completely removed the fixture. When it read hot they were hanging out of the box


Were you using an actual meter to measure that, or just a tick tracer?


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## Caseyrey (Jun 27, 2011)

I was using a multimeter


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## gold (Feb 15, 2008)

put the neutrals back together then read.


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## A Little Short (Nov 11, 2010)

Caseyrey said:


> So I'm stumped I have an outside light fixture that quit working. I checked the fixture with a widowmaker and it works. At the switch the neutral isn't hot but at the wall the neutral and hot are the same potential. When I ohm them out they show open between neutral and hot. Tomorrow I'm gonna borrow a megger from work to check them and some longer test leads to ohm out the whole neutral from wall to switch. Anyone have any other ideas to try. I'm thinking there's an open in the neutral but that doesn't explain it being hot. Thanks for the help in advance.


Unless the switch was installed recently, I doubt you have a neutral there. Unless the switch box is the junction box. You said the hot and neutral have the same potential, potential to what. Are you checking each to ground, and both are reading 120V? Are you sure you don't have a white switch leg that wasn't re-identified? Do you get 120V from hot to ground at the exposed wires from the fixture when you operate the switch?


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## MF Dagger (Dec 24, 2007)

Wirenut a light back onto the wires and then read the voltage by sticking the tips down into the wirenut.


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## bobelectric (Feb 24, 2007)

Call an Electrician!


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## Service Call (Jul 9, 2011)

I think Mr. Alwon will be stepping in here shortly.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

At some point of wasting time trying to fix broken wires, sometimes it's easier to just pull a new cable into place.


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

Shockdoc said:


> At some point of wasting time trying to fix broken wires, sometimes it's easier to just pull a new cable into place.


 

or just put 240 volts on the microwave. The hotdogs take too long to cook anyway


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## Current (Jul 4, 2011)

mcclary's electrical said:


> or just put 240 volts on the microwave. The hotdogs take too long to cook anyway


What if it's a 4 phase microwave?


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## Speedy Petey (Jan 10, 2007)

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