Neutrals!

[telectrix]

another quick way is to check switch in hall or landing should be a 3 core between switches if its 2 core youve got borrowed nuetrals

and that little link from the hall switch to the landing switch is a dead giveaway (or live , if you prefer)

 

[supasparxs]

Hi

can someone please advise me as the best and easiest way to see if a house has borrowed neutrals, I have trawled previous posts but can't really find any clear answers.

All help is appreciated.

I have a couple of ideas but just want to see if I am thinking correctly.

My current college tutor says you can't test for a borrowed neutral.

Thanks

Craig

Coming straight to the point about if you want to see if the neutrals are being shared.
If you use a clamp meter on a neutral and monitor the load going through it. Turn all the circuit.
If there are no shared/borrowed/stolen neutrals the load will go down to zero.
If the neutral is shared/borrowed/stolen you will have a current running through it.
if you repeat this for each circuit.

 

[HandySparks]

Coming straight to the point about if you want to see if the neutrals are being shared.
If you use a clamp meter on a neutral and monitor the load going through it. Turn all the circuit.
If there are no shared/borrowed/stolen neutrals the load will go down to zero.
If the neutral is shared/borrowed/stolen you will have a current running through it.
if you repeat this for each circuit.

I did this on a cooker cct that I suspected of being used for the neutral of some under-cupboard lights. With the cooker off, and lights on, the neutral current at the DB was just right for the relevant lights.

 

[oldtimer]

A shared or a borrowed neutral has to be seen in the time it was done technically sparks have come a long way since then ie we would not dream of doing this but then it was acceptable plus some sparks I have worked with were not the sharpist knive in the drawer and technically they could not put a nut in a monkeys mouth plus some were just plain lazy or under pressure to get the job done so instead of looping a neutral they borrowed one they were not to realise that 40 years later a thing called an RCD that just will not forgive you if you dont get the wiring right.

So yes it is all very well pointing or wagging a finger but things have come a long way