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Thread: white ground?

  1. #1
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    Default white ground?

    12/ 2 with ground, but the ground is white? I don't recall seeing this before.

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  2. #2
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    Default Re: white ground?

    2006 IRC
    E3307.2 Equipment grounding conductors.
    Equipment
    grounding conductors of sizes 6 AWG and smaller shall be
    identified by a continuous green color or a continuous green
    color with one or more yellow stripes on the insulation or covering,
    except where bare. Conductors with insulation or individual

    covering that is green, green with one or more yellow stripes, or otherwise identified as permitted by this section shall not be used for ungrounded or grounded circuit conductors. ...


    ' correct a wise man and you gain a friend... correct a fool and he'll bloody your nose'.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: white ground?

    Quote Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
    12/ 2 with ground, but the ground is white? I don't recall seeing this before.
    Never seen that before and it looks like trouble for neutral and ground connections at the fixtures.


  4. #4
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    Default Re: white ground?

    Quote Originally Posted by John Kogel View Post
    looks like trouble for neutral and ground connections at the fixtures.
    Agreed.

    Jerry Peck
    Construction/Litigation/Code Consultant - Retired
    www.AskCodeMan.com

  5. #5
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    Default Re: white ground?

    Check the other end of one or two of the cables and see what's there.

    Very early in my career I was there when an inspector showed up and informed the lead electrician that "you really don't think the code book means for you to leave a bare wire in the box, do you?" And, after a heated discussion pieces of white insulation were slid over the ground wires as "it wouldn't be right to use red or black"

    Anyway, after this idiot left we removed the white insulation again. I guess this is the only time I ever saw 2 "white" wires in an NM cable with one black and I've heard the story about "no bare wires in the box" more than once.

    I guess the point is you MAY not actually have 2 white wires in the cable


  6. #6
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    Default Re: white ground?

    Bill,

    Never heard of that. Interesting.

    However, that did bring back a memory for old times ... I knew an electrician friend who did most service work - repairs and adding lights, switches, etc., and he said that he would on occasion when there was no way to run a switch leg slide insulation over the bare ground at each end of the cable and use the ground for the switch leg, allowing him to have a hot, a neutral, and a switch leg, and did not have a ground.

    He was one of those older electricians who was there long before grounds where and he figured that if people got by for decades without grounds it would be okay to 'get by without a ground in this case'. Grounds had only been required for maybe 2-3 code cycles at that time and some older electricians did not always readily to the changes.

    Just another thing to check - make sure that actually does go to ground.

    Jerry Peck
    Construction/Litigation/Code Consultant - Retired
    www.AskCodeMan.com

  7. #7
    Richard Abrams's Avatar
    Richard Abrams Guest

    Cool Re: white ground?

    Check each end of this cable to verify if the white is indeed a ground. White should be neutral not ground.


  8. #8
    Cobra Cook's Avatar
    Cobra Cook Guest

    Default Re: white ground?

    Are you sure that there is not two romex cables in the connection?


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