Electrocuted from neutral

[RickH]

IMO working with neutrals is far more dangerous than working with hot leads. For these reasons:

Hot leads are logical, they terminate at specific devices and they have specific breakers that you can trun off, they are easily identified. To put your body in series with a hot requires that you hold the hot and a neutral or ground, very obvious, breakers are specific also very obvious.

Neutrals on the other hand travel througout the house, they are frequently bundled across multiple live branches. When you undo a neutral bundle in a box and you have shut off the breaker you think is correct. That neutral may still be carrying a load on a different breaker. When you undo the bundle then happen to grab two neutrals you could very easily put your body in series with a load carrier. Instant death if you gripped them hard.

I have gotten more inadvertent shocks and sparks from neutrals than hots over the years by undoing bundles to get in another neutral in the wire cap, then discovering that I opened a live crcuit on a different branch where I did not trip the breaker.

[RickH]

google groups is great when you cant get NNTP ports opened up on firewalled networks where the NNTP ports are frequently disabled. I use it all the time for this reason.

[bud--]

The 2008 NEC makes no change to using common neutrals - they are still allowed.

As several people have said, the 2008 NEC requires a common disconnect which can be a handle tie.

AFCI circuits can't use a common neutral (unless the AFCI breaker is

240V). That is a limitation of the breaker, not the NEC. (AFCIs include ground fault detection, typically at 30mA.) Because the 2008 NEC vastly expands where AFCI protection is required in houses, the use of common neutrals is effectively much limited.

The NEC applies to new wiring, not existing. (A jurisdiction can change that.)

[Michael Dobony]

Per several inspectors and electricians. Evidently wrong based upon the response here.

[Phisherman]

A 1 or 2 volt reading is nothing to be alarmed about and could be due to resistance differences. A good outlet tester (about $20) will make quick work in testing all the outlets in the circuit.