I'm new to home wiring and had a question I'd like explained to me. I removed a vent hood over my oven and I thought I had to complete the circuit so I tied the hot and neutral wires that were powering the hood together with a wire nut, but all the lights on that breaker in the house didn't work after that. I then tried turning on the breaker with the hot and neutral wires NOT touching and all the lights worked!
This doesn't make sense to me; this might be a super simple question but I'm just trying to understand.
Why did the breaker work when those two wires weren't connected, but when I secured them with a wire nut then all of the lights also on that breaker didn't work?
Best Answer
You don't need to "complete the circuit". Tying together the hot and neutral wires creates a short circuit, which should immediately trip the circuit breaker. If you're removing a vent hood, you should put a wire nut on the end of each now-unused wire (to prevent a short circuit) and close up the box.
Every unused outlet in the house is an "incomplete circuit". Presumably you don't install jumper wires across each outlet every time you unplug something, right?