I think the whole 'green wire as ground only' rule is overhyped

Last Tuesday I was rewiring an old house from the 1950s in Sacramento. Had a buddy look over my shoulder and he got all worked up because I used a green wire for a switched leg instead of ground. Look, on that job the ground was already running through the armored cable like it always was back then. I trust my connections and the panel was bonded fine. Has anyone else run into old timers who insist on strict code even when it makes zero sense for the situation?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex8201d ago

Caught myself doing the same thing once, figured the smoke would tell me if I was wrong.

sullivan.quinn22h agoTop Commenter

My multimeter gave up last week and I nearly did the same thing @alex820, but my neighbor talked me out of it by asking if my eyebrows had grown back from the last time. That smoke test approach is a risky form of troubleshooting, let me tell you.

ray5621d ago

Did that backfire with a loud pop or just sort of fizzle out quietly... I had a buddy who tried testing a car battery by touching both terminals with a wrench just to see if it still had juice. He ended up with a melted wrench and a dead battery that smelled like a sulfur bomb went off in the garage. Still can't look at that wrench without laughing though... it's just a sad lump of metal now sitting in his toolbox like a cautionary tale.