Which is the feed wire and the switch wire in electrical installations?

Question

if you know a site with diagrams that would help, thanks.

Answer 1

don't go there get a man in who knows

Answer 2

As a common household standard there are three wires provided to the typical outlet.

White: considered the source or "feed"
Black: considered the return
Green: earth ground

White and Black provide 120V AC and are interchangeable.
no mater what you plug into, assuming its an AC device that operates on 110-120 V AC @ 60Hz the device will never know the difference between the black and white wires or which way you hook them up.

Green is earth ground and assuming your house was hooked up right, it leads straight to the earth, literally a long copper pole driven into the ground beneath your house.

I assume your installing a Light switch, and in that case the "standard" wire to choose to "cut" and insert a switch is the white wire.

Just FIY and safety tips, the technicians that actually installed your household wiring are NOT engineers, and thus there is a chance that they took less then their half exposed *** in job quality and might not have used the standard, you may see the right colors you may not! and they might be hooked up wrong! so always check the wires before you start messing with them.

Once you have checked to see 120V AC between (hopefully) the white and black, you should also see about 50 V AC between the White or Black and the Green. Then go shut off the circuit breaker. Working with Live wires is not a good idea, and can literally kill you. The Wires in the wall providing power to the outlets usually have at least 10 Amp circuit breakers, which is many many times more then needed to stop your heart beat.

Be Careful!

Answer 3

feed wire -------------o/o-------------- switchwire. The wire before the switch is the feed, the one leaving it is the switchwire (basic terms).

The colour depends on what country your from, but even at that the colours could vary, is the switch wired using single core cables or is it wired in PVC twin + earth (the stuff with the grey cover/sheath)? Has the electrician who installed the wiring originally used the correct cable as you can also get a 3 core + earth cable for strapper wires which are coloured differently. Has it been wired in the new BS colour standard?

If your wiring a light, at the end of the day if you only have two wires at the switch it doesn't matter what is the switchwire and what is the feed, because the switch is only making/breaking the flow of volts/Amps. If you have test lamps even better!!

If in doubt call an electrician!! (In UK make sure they are NICEIC approved)

Answer 4

Feed Wire

Answer 5

This is one of the easiest of the intermediate wiring circuits to do.To start, you must identify the power wire and it's neutral (white), then connect the neutral wire to the lights. Connect the black lead from each light together and to the common of one of the switches. Connect the other 2 terminals of the switches to each of the wires that connect to the other switch, Now connect the hot wire to the common terminal on the last switch. If you use a white wire for a power lead, you should mark it with a piece of black tape around the insulation. One of the other responders has a very good link that shows just how it should be done.

Answer 6

The feed wire would be the wire containing the voltage source. This wire is usually black and where I am contains 120 VAC. The switch wire is on the other side of the switch from the feed wire and is usually red and would connect to a light bulb or motor, etc. The white wire is the neutral return.

Answer 7

In the UK the feed wire is usually red and if touched with the finger it will give you a tingle, wet your finger and it will bite, DON'T EVEN TRY IT> . The return ( switch wire ) has been black for many years but things have changed. If you don't know these basic things don't even think of becoming a sparky.
Suggest you get a milkman's job

Answer 8

The feed wire is the wire coming from your power scource like your electrical panel and the switch wire is the wire running from the swithch box to the fixture or receptacle depending on which you have

Answer 9

in the UK -[ LIVE (feed) is BROWN (This wire goes to the fuse) ] [ NEUTRAL(switch) is BLue or BLack] and [ EARTH is GREEN or green/yellow ] In a plug a good way to remember is when looking into the open plug[ Bottom left (BL)=blue] -[ Bottom right ( BR) brown] Top is green - -

Answer 10

If you can afford it, you probably should use somebody who knows (licenced electrician)

If you can't afford it, use internet extensively