Nope. You need to put your neutral in with your partnered conductors.

Can you use a ground wire as a power wire?

The answer is safety of course! Ground wire acts as defense against unstable electrical currents. Under normal circuit conditions, ground wire isn’t carrying any current. … If there are only two prongs, then ground wire may not be utilized.

Can I use ground instead of neutral?





a ground and a neutral are both wires. unless they’re tied together with other circuits, and not a ‘home run’ back to the panel, there is no difference between the two where they both end up on the same bus bar in the box.

Does 120V need a ground?

In item one, if the system can be grounded in a way that the phase-to-ground voltage is less than 150V, it must always be grounded. An example of this is a single-phase, 2-wire system with a 120V output (secondary). If one conductor or the other is grounded, the system’s phase-to-ground voltage is 120V.

Why does my ground wire have 120 volts?

The standard U.S. household wiring design has two 120 volt “hot” wires and a neutral which is at ground potential. The two 120 volt wires are obtained by grounding the centertap of the transformer supplying the house so that when one hot wire is swinging positive with respect to ground, the other is swinging negative.

Should you have 120v between hot and ground?

You have to measure neutral-ground or hot-ground. If neutral-ground voltage is about 120 V and hot-ground is a few volts or less, then hot and neutral have been reversed. Under load conditions, there should be some neutral-ground voltage – 2 V or a little bit less is pretty typical.

How do you know if a wire is ground or neutral?





Quote from the video:
And finally touch the red probe to each exposed wire. If you don't get a voltage reading the wire is neutral. If you get a reading the wire is hot you can also use color coding to identify.

Can I tie the neutral and ground together?

No, the neutral and ground should never be wired together. This is wrong, and potentially dangerous. When you plug in something in the outlet, the neutral will be live, as it closes the circuit. If the ground is wired to the neutral, the ground of the applicance will also be live.

What is the purpose of the ground wire?

The ground wire offers an additional path for the electrical circuit to flow into the earth so as to not endanger anyone working with the electricity nearby in the event of a short circuit. Without ground wire, your body could instead complete the ground path and may cause shock or electrocution.

What happens if ground wire is not connected?

Is the ground wire necessary? The appliance will operate normally without the ground wire because it is not a part of the conducting path which supplies electricity to the appliance. In fact, if the ground wire is broken or removed, you will normally not be able to tell the difference.

Is ground wire necessary?



The ground wire is not strictly necessary for the operation of a device, but it is still an important feature. This wire is designed to provide a path for electrical current to travel if the normal paths aren’t available. This could be because the other paths are damaged, or there is too much electricity for them.

What happens if ground wire touches metal?

If the ground wires touch the metal box the breaker pops and the ground wires spark. The main feed comes out of a ceiling light fixture box. The ceiling box is two wire BX. I’m using NM to feed the junction box.

Where do you connect the ground wire?

Ground wires are typically attached to a ground screw or screw terminal connection on either the light fixture, receptacle outlet, or electrical devices or components including the electrical junction box, or ground lead wire from light fixtures and other the electrical devices which provide a connection for the ground …

Can I attach ground wire to mounting screw?



You attach the ground wire from the supply cable to the metal box. Always. If the lamp has a metal frame, and the box is metal, it can ground itself through the mounting screws. Otherwise you’ll need a 3-way pigtail between a pigtail off the box, the supply wire, and the lamp’s ground.

Can I connect a ground wire to a screw?

Quote from the video:
The ground wire from the green terminal on the receptacle.