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Post History
Most everyday electrical wiring has two wires Well, no. Nowadays you usually get hot, neutral (or "return"), and ground. At least here in North America where houses get power from the secondary ...
Answer
#1: Initial revision
by
Olin Lathrop
·
2023-07-06T13:40:30Z (over 1 year ago)
<blockquote>Most everyday electrical wiring has two wires</blockquote> Well, no. Nowadays you usually get hot, neutral (or "return"), and ground. At least here in North America where houses get power from the secondary of a center-tapped 240 V transformer. <blockquote>usually one white and one black/red</blockquote> That depends on jurisdiction. Here in the US, it's black for hot, white for neutral, and green for ground. In the past this wasn't always the rule, so you need to be more careful with old wiring. <blockquote>When installing a switch, does it matter which wire I put the switch on?</blockquote> Absolutely! This will be spelled out in any competent electrical code. You always want to switch the hot wire or wires. For a typical 120 V circuit in a US house, that would be the black wire. For 240 V appliances there are two hots, so they both need to be switched.