I'm just a programmer who wants to add an outlet below my light switch. I did a bunch of research on this topic and decided I could tackle it. According to my research, the hot/line is the black wire going into the bottom of the switch and the load is the top wire. The neutral is the white ones that are capped off.
But here I have white wires going into the switch and black ones capped off. Are the white wires line and load and the black ones neutral? Is this perhaps wired completely wrong in such a way that happens to work? How do I determine if this is wrong and how do I go about fixing it?
Best Answer
In a perfect world, black is hot and white is neutral. Unfortunately,that's not always true. I have seen houses wired opposite, against code. I've seen part of the house wired opposite. What you need to do is get a meter, not a wonder stick, and test your black group for voltage to ground. You should get 120v +-, then test white group to ground and you should get 0. If you get 0 when testing the black and 120V when testing white, then it's backwards and you or a pro should figure out why. It could be wired correctly and maybe whoever installed this switch decided to switch the neutral instead of the hot. Once you determine hot and neutral, you can think about installing your outlet.