Home Electrical Question

[MED]

I found a strange setup in a junction box and was wondering about it. There are two 12-2 leads comming into the box and there is one lead going out of the box to two outlets and a light switch. The hot of one lead is connected to the outgoing hot, and the nuetral of the other lead is going to the outbound neutral. All the gounds are connected together. So these outlets are running from the hot of one lead and the neutral of the other and the grounds of both...what the hell?

[Wulf202]

Unless your place is real old the former owners made it work

[Lurch]

All the neutrals and grounds are connected together in the main breaker box so there is now reason it wouldn't work, is the other 12-2 hot or does it go to another outlet that is dead?

[MED]

All the neutrals and grounds are connected together in the main breaker box so there is now reason it wouldn't work, is the other 12-2 hot or does it go to another outlet that is dead?

The downline receptacles do work, but they give an error code (I can't remember which without looking again). I Haven't checked each lead to see if both work yet. However, on the adjacent wall, I have two receptacles that show a good connection on a tester, but don't work so one of these leads might be on the same as the two receptacles that don't work. I plan to pull the first non-functioning receptacles and change it out so see if is faulty. Anyhow, I am getting ready to pull this mess apart and run new 12-2 wire through the ceiling, but I was just wondering about this configuration. When I pull it apart, I will check each lead. It just seamed really jacked, and I was wondering what would prompt somebody to wire it this way. I ask because I know an electrician did it right before I bought the place. Some of the electrical issues were known, but I asked that any exposed wires were terminated and enclosed in junction boxes prior to the sale; this was one of them.

[spqrzilla]

Sounds like someone thought that they were "solving" an overloaded circuit problem to me.

[MED]

I just pulled out one of the receptacles and walked away for the night. One lead was connected to the receptacle while the other had a wire nut on it. Yes, the whole damn thing; some jackass put a wire nut on the hot, neutral, and ground with the shielding stripped off each wire.

[ben4372]

at least they were working with "real" wire. I've seem houses wired with white extension cords and speaker wire. I guess anything will work in a pinch?