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Posted by Charlie on November 1, 2009, 1:35 pm
I'm in the process of replacing a bathroom vent with light. I mean,
how hard can it be? :) In so doing, I have encountered some wiring
that has me puzzled as to safety and function.
What caught my attention was that I have a single, 2 wire w/ground
running to the vent. For two circuits? Hmmm. Let me see if I can
describe this.
Power to the switch box is supplied by a single two wire w/ground.
The black wire is daisy chained to both single pole switches. The
white wire is connected to ground in the switch box (???).
Now things get weird. The 2 wire w/ground running into the ceiling
has the following connections:
- the black wire is connected to the fan switch and up to the vent
fan;
- the white wire is connected to the light switch and up to the vent
light;
- the ground is tied into all the other grounds.
Up at the vent, we see the connections described as above; however,
the ground is left floating in air.
The weird part is that the vent white wires for the fan and light are
connected together (???).
I don't see the return path such that this would work. Is there
something I am missing?
Appreciate any feedback to this mess.
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Posted by Charlie on November 1, 2009, 2:39 pm
Okay, I went back and checked the original connections... again.
As I described it, there was no return path, and hooking it all up
proved it - nothing worked.
So, the ground at the vent is not floating, it is tied to the return.
Near as I can tell, it's a cheap way of avoiding another run to the
hardware store for some 3-wire or another run. Am I looking at a
short-cut?
cg
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Posted by RBM on November 1, 2009, 4:57 pm
> Okay, I went back and checked the original connections... again.
> As I described it, there was no return path, and hooking it all up
> proved it - nothing worked.
> So, the ground at the vent is not floating, it is tied to the return.
> Near as I can tell, it's a cheap way of avoiding another run to the
> hardware store for some 3-wire or another run. Am I looking at a
> short-cut?
> cg
Not a shortcut, a non professional, dangerous mess. Get a piece of 14/3 with
ground and wire it correctly
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Posted by Charlie on November 1, 2009, 6:23 pm
roger that, rb. But, doing web searches didn't yield anything other
than ground loops be bad for audio equipment.
Why particular dangerous?
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Posted by RBM on November 1, 2009, 7:14 pm
> roger that, rb. But, doing web searches didn't yield anything other
> than ground loops be bad for audio equipment.
> Why particular dangerous?
The only way it could work, with a two wire cable, is by using the ground as
a neutral, thereby eliminating the safety conductor, and allowing the metal
body of the unit and anything that may come in contact with it, to become
part of the circuit
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> As I described it, there was no return path, and hooking it all up
> proved it - nothing worked.
> So, the ground at the vent is not floating, it is tied to the return.
> Near as I can tell, it's a cheap way of avoiding another run to the
> hardware store for some 3-wire or another run. Am I looking at a
> short-cut?
> cg