neutral connected to ground at outlet, does this violate code ?

ktnwin · Dec 9, 2020

I have an outlet in my home that is wired in a non standard manner. Its neutral and ground are connected together based on the wiring diagram below. Please note I have identified the root cause of the 40V and 17V and fixed it. So I got 120V between hot and ground, 0V between neutral and ground in the light J-box.
The diagram shows that there is no true neutral wire from the live cable going to the switch box and the outlet below the switch box. To get the outlet to work, the neutral of the outlet is connected to ground inside the switch box.
Is this outlet wiring legitimate ? Does it violate NEC code ?
If it is OK, I can make use a GFCI receptacle here for ground fault protection and hope that it is code compliant.
I appreciate all advises on this matter.

[ElectriciansForums.net] neutral connected to ground at outlet, does this violate code ?

telectrix · Dec 9, 2020

you need to get a neutral to the outlet and separate the ground. end of.

ktnwin · Dec 9, 2020

Well, the light J-box is pretty far from the switch, all cables are inside the walls. There is no practical way for me as a DIY to add neutral to his whole thing. The wiring is original in this 40 yrs old home.

ktnwin · Dec 10, 2020

Look like this outlet cannot be made working without violating NEC code.
I will remove the receptacle, cut off both ends of the ROMEX cable and put in the blank cover.
This way, it is out of sight and... out of mind.
There are two outlets nearby, on both sides but not the same wall !!!

Megawatt · Dec 10, 2020

ktnwin said:
I have an outlet in my home that is wired in a non standard manner. Its neutral and ground are connected together based on the wiring diagram below. Please note I have identified the root cause of the 40V and 17V and fixed it. So I got 120V between hot and ground, 0V between neutral and ground in the light J-box.
The diagram shows that there is no true neutral wire from the live cable going to the switch box and the outlet below the switch box. To get the outlet to work, the neutral of the outlet is connected to ground inside the switch box.
Is this outlet wiring legitimate ? Does it violate NEC code ?
If it is OK, I can make use a GFCI receptacle here for ground fault protection and hope that it is code compliant.
I appreciate all advises on this matter.

View attachment 62817

Neutrals and grounds are allowed to be terminated on the same neutral bar in the first panel after the power company's transformer but in the field it is a violation of the NEC. Loose and broken neutrals are hard to find and I will put them together to see if it starts working to help me troubleshoot, then I take it loose

ktnwin · Dec 11, 2020

This outlet has no neutral wire going into it. In principle it should not even be there.
I recently why connecting neutral to ground in and outlet is a very bad thing to do.
So I remove the receptacle, cap out the wires with wire nut (even they have been disconnected from the source), and put a blank cover there. Out of sight, out of mind.

ktnwin · Dec 21, 2020

I checked outlets and switches in my home to ensure all are wired correctly. I just discovered another outlet with neutral connected to ground.
I believe this outlet was added on, and did not exist when the home was built 40 years ago.
Here is the wiring diagram without this add-on outlet. This looks good to me.

The outlet in the above diagram is a switched outlet in one bedroom.

And here is the wiring diagram when an outlet near the switch is added on

Since the switch box has no neutral, the ground and neutral of this outlet are connected in the switch box. At the outlet, one cannot see that connection.
The wall opening for this outlet was cut out larger than the width of the box, whoever did this use the large wall plate to cover it.

ktnwin · Dec 21, 2020

I have plan to fix this issue and at the same time add a ceiling light controlled by this same switch.
First, I will replace the switch outlet with a normal outlet and connect the wires of the active line to the cable that goes to the switch, at the switch box, this cable is now the active line.
I will add a cable going from this switch box to the light on the ceiling.
Here is the wiring diagram I came up with:

Since the switch box now has good active line (hot, neutral and ground), the nearby outlet can inherit these and become a properly connected outlet. The bonus is I have a ceiling light as I wanted anyway.
Adding one more cable like this is exactly what I just did to my bedroom #1 when I installed ceiling light in this room yesterday.