Residential Wiring Colors....GREEN?

It's not connected to the neutral buss. It's connected to the circuit breaker. It's being used as a hot leg, not neutral.

Reply to
RBM
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RBM wrote: ...

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Yeah, I _knew_ that and got crossed in response way back and had it as both...my bad... :(

OP should verify the _real_ neutral is ok on the same circuit and there's not some other wire there that is supposed to have been the hot that is now the ground or such....

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Reply to
dpb

This wiring must be a conduit.

Unless I'm missing something, all you really need to do is run a while neutral wire.

Reply to
John Gilmer

What do you expect that to accomplish? The OP never said he's missing a neutral wire -- he said some previous person used a green wire as a hot conductor. How will running a white neutral wire change that?

Reply to
Doug Miller

Whatever.

My point is that he can put the right colors into the conduit. The green can be used as a ground, etc.

One of the justifications for conduit is that you can install what you need and pull out what you don't need.

Since there is wire installed, all he has to do is pull one wire and measure it and pick up the lengths and colors (& sizes) he wants at the home depost or whatever.

Reply to
John Gilmer

Oh for crying out loud. Wrap some black electrical tape around the wire on both ends (breaker box and outlet). Continue the wire using a black wire and forget about it. Yes it's a code violation, but not the end of the world. The wire itself is the same thing, just the color of the insulation. The black tape (or red tape), will correct the code violation.

However, if you have any electricians work on your wiring, be sure they are professionals, and intelligent enough to work on your wiring without getting killed. If one does die, just stuff him in your breaker box, and dont forget to give him coffee every morning.

Reply to
barron

What the heck is a pony panel? I never knew ponys need electric to make them run.....

Reply to
barron

It's funny, because about 50 years ago, my uncle, a licensed electrician, installed wiring for my parents garage, and used a green wire for a hot. He probably just used what he had on hand. I remember this because years later I added a third wire to that garage circuit, so I could get 220V in the garage for a compressor. I noticed that green wire and knew it was not to code, and since I wanted to pull another wire thru the conduit, I attached a black and a red to the green one and pulled the two new ones with the green wire. I just saved the green wire for grounding on other jobs. My uncle had died from old age, so I could not ask him why he used green.

BUT....... I'm wondering if green could legally be used as a hot wire

50 years ago? Just because green is not code as a hot wire NOW, does not mean it was always against the code back in the old days. I have seen every color imaginable used for hot leads. Black, Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Brown, Light blue, Navy blue, Pink, and others.
Reply to
barron

If that's what you meant, then that's what you should have said. :-)

Reply to
Doug Miller

No.

Well, it was. AFAIK, the NEC has always mandated green for ground.

And all of those meet Code. "Every color imaginable" is permitted to be used for ungrounded (hot) conductors, except: a) white b) gray c) green d) green with yellow stripe The first two are reserved for grounded (neutral) conductors, and the last two for grounding conductors. Anything else is OK for hot wires.

Reply to
Doug Miller

The NEC would like you to use a screw with machine threads, at least 2 threads in the metal (250.8). (Typically 10-32.)

As an alternative, you've probably seen "self grounding" receptacles - have a clip next to the mounting screws to improve the path to the metal box. (I like pigtails, like you used, a lot better.)

Flex used to be allowed as a grounding conductor if the flex and fittings were "approved for the purpose". Now it is allowed only when several conditions are met, including a maximum of 6 ft in the path back to the panel. When I change the wires in flex I add a ground wire.

Probably a good ground path, but the meter and neon light (and 3-light testers) do not use enough current to tell you if it is a high resistance (useless) path. A 200W light bulb from H-G is a lot more reliable. I use a neon test light all the time, but not to make sure there is a good ground.

Reply to
bud--

I'm the original poster, OP. Just to clarify:

The flex metal conduit is attached to the garage outlet box and to the breaker box. It has the hot green wire and the white neutral wire inside. The green wire is attached to the breaker, and the white wire to the breaker box's neutral & ground bus bar.

I would consider disconnecting the green wire from the 20A breaker and pulling it through the conduit, with a proper replacement black wire attached and trailing if it were a straight run from the breaker box to the garage outlet. But since there are living room outlets also on this circuit, and they are NOT fed from the garage outlet box, there has to be a junction box in the wall or attic between the breaker box and the garage outlet. Therefore, I can't pull the entire wire through without gaining access to that hidden junction box, and unhooking the wires (probably green also!) which are feeding those other outlets. And due to the VERY small crawl space & loose insulation in my attic, I'm not going up there. Based on my own intuition and the opinions of other posters, I'm simply going to mark each end of the existing green wire black, post a warning inside the breaker box that there's one green wire that's hot, and leave it alone.

As for the questions about whether the circuit is properly grounded, I would assume the short green grounding wire from the new outlet to the screw in the metal outlet box, and the metal conduit from the outlet box to the breaker box should be adequate. I measure 117 VAC from the outlet's hot wire to the outlet box screw, which to me means the ground path is intact.

One question I do have is: Can I just use a black magic marker to paint the ends of the green wire or do I have to use, as others suggested, black electrical tape?

Reply to
Josh

It may be, then again it may not be. You should read Bud's post. It was found that the steel wrap on BX (AC) cable was not adequate and the

1962 Nec required a bonding wire installed. Current Nec doesn't allow metallic flex as an equipment ground in lengths over six feet, probably for the same reason.
Reply to
RBM

Klein makes a nice "multi tap" that is a 6-in-1 tap on a screwdriver handle, perfect for this app. Shoot a hole in the back of the box and then tap it to 10-32 with the multi-tap, green screw, pigtail of bare

14AWG, et voila.

Only works if the box is already grounded, of course.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

That depends on your personal comfort level. NEC says "no."

Personally if I were to repull wire I would pull an add'l conductor through for a definite ground as per modern practice, assuming that there is enough room to do so. I'd pull out the green and pull another green and a black or red behind it. If you're "frugal" you could pull a black and a string through with the green, then pull the green (and another string just in case) back in with the string.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

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