Re: Neutral wire at switches for outlets?

[Mike Barnes <august2005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In comp.home.automation, E. Lee Dickinson wrote:
>In my home, there is a 3-way circuit which controls a group of outlets
>and a group of lights.  In the process of stripping the outlets out of
>the circuit,  I discovered that the circuit hot comes from the breaker,
>but the neutral comes from another (unswitched) circuit of outlets.
>
>By my thinking -- the neutrals are all common at the breaker anyway, so
>it shouldn't make a difference. Is there any reason for me to be
>concerned about this?

Yes, you should be concerned, at least from my UK perspective. Here it's
normal to disconnect one circuit to work on it, leaving the rest of the
circuits live. If you disconnect one live and one neutral, your safety
depends on that neutral *not* being connected to any other live though
an appliance. So it's not permitted to mix the neutrals.

You said "the neutrals are all common anyway" and that is true normally,
but not always.

--
Mike Barnes