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Paul Hovnanian P.E. Paul Hovnanian P.E. is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 79
Default AC wiring question - identifying neutral wire

"Wayne.B" wrote:

My boat has non-standard color coding on the AC wiring, typically all
3 wires red instead of the US standard of black, white, green.

Identifying the hot wire is easy but I'm not sure how to positively
identify the neutral wire vs the safety ground. Measuring voltage
from the hot wire yields 110 to either one. This is looking from the
load end not the panel end of course.

Anyone have suggestions?


Turn on some loads and measure the return current in each conductor at 0
volts. The neutral should have the same current as the hot. The ground
should carry no current.

But, I'm willing to bet that the ground/neutrals have been mixed up
between junctions and you will see some current on each.

The only way to know for sure is to disconnect each run of wiring
between junction boxes or splices and use a continuity tester.

P.S. Mark everything with appropriate colored tape as you identify it.

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Trust the computer industry to shorten the term "Year 2000" to Y2K.
It was this kind of thinking that got us in trouble in the first place.
-- Adrian Tyvand