I am wiring a house and i was wondering which wire goes to the breaker box. Does it run from the main light switch to the breaker box? The ceiling fan is run from the main light switch?
Romex containing hot, neutral, and ground wires (12/2 or 14/2) will be coming from the circuit breaker panel and will go to the switch & load. Are you sure you’re qualified to do the job? May want to hire it out. Or at least pick up a book on home wiring from Lowe’s.
Physically, it doesn’t matter which wire goes to the breaker box. All that matters is that the circuit is connected properly from a schematic perspective, and is also compliant with all codes.
You can run power to either the load or the switch, which ever is closes. You can then run a loop to the switch if needed.
I agree on at least getting a book if not help.
Also, please realize that the service side of your circuit breaker panel is still hot even if you’ve shut off the main breaker. The load side will be dead, of course, but caution is still needed for the service side lugs.
if you are asking then i don’t think you should do the job. you need to do it correctly for it to work and to not be a hazard to life and property. even if you have an idea of what should be done there is technique involved, gained through experience, on doing it in the right manner to work long term and be safe.
book learning is the minimal requirement. best to do some book learning and then watch an experienced person do some wiring and learn from them.
working in a circuit breaker enclosure is potentially deadly. should only be done by those with lots of knowledge and experience.
I’m with **johnpost **on this one.
I could explain exactly how to do it, but will refrain from doing so. Based on the very basic questions you’re asking, you had better have a pro do it, or at least someone who has a lot of experience with residential wiring.
You are correct that pysically it doesn’t matter, but for safety’s sake it sure does. The next person that comes along to work on whatever is being powered is going to expect that the ground and power are on the correct colors.
Agreed. Which color wire doesn’t matter for instance for an electrical circuit, the wire under the insulation is the same. But for the next guy to work on those wires it makes a big difference. And if you make a mistake, sorting it out will be much harder. And that is just the minimum you need to know about wiring anyway. I do all my own wiring, and even though I’m quite capable of maintaining code for household wiring, I have an electrician come in and approve everything I do simply to avoid problems with insurance if an electrical fire ever occurs. I wouldn’t say this applies to replacing a light switch, but certainly running wires and connecting to a service panel should be done with a higher level expertise than your question demonstrates.
Disclaimer: I currently have two friends who are electricians, and it’s never cost me more than a beer for their inspection services. YMMV
I wasn’t talking about the colour. I was talking about the actual run of wiring: which was the original question.
Personal I feel anyone that can’t identify the difference between a switch leg and a feed has no business touching electrical, so I’m not all that concerned if they get nailed. I black tape the whites on switch legs, but in the industry I’m the uncommon electrician that does. Most don’t.
If you open a switch box and can’t ID all the wires within a few minutes you should put the cover back on and call someone who can.
I interpreted your post as meaning which cable went to the box. Actually the black, white, and bare or green wires each have their proper places to connect to at the breaker box, fan, and switch.
Anything with 2 or more single wires within an outer jacket should be called a cable, not a wire. So the cable coming from the breaker box can go to either the fan or the switch.
And yes, when the white wire in a cable is hot, it should be marked black at the ends.
The electricians tell me to do that, and I do. Then they come and look at it and say, “Good, you marked the hot wires, nobody ever does that”.
that is the smart and safe thing to do.
^^^ This. I’ve refused to do a garage door opener repair once I got up into the attic and found the original (no doubt amateur) installer had used at least 4 different color wires to the opener and the lights, none of them the standard colors. I’m not a pro, just a handyman for hire. I won’t touch a job that was obviously originally done by an incompetent amateur. I know pros who won’t, either.
You’re assuming it was an amateur. I once ran across a circuit in a commercial building that was a crazy quilt of whatever odds and ends the electrician had. It started in the breaker panel as black, then went to brown at the first junction box, then in the next room it changed to red, and ultimately ended as blue. 
As for the OP - like everyone else here, this scares the hell out of me:
True, but in this particular case, it was at the rectory of my mother’s church, and I strongly suspect I know just which idiot parishioner volunteered to do the original installation. He wasn’t any kind of electrician, pro or otherwise. 
I know others have already agreed, but as soon as I read the OP, I went :eek:. Wiring a whole house and asking one of the most basic question there is? No way.
Not everybody that earns their living doing wiring is a professional.
I have seen people taking money for the job carefully connecting the ground and neutral at light fixtures.
To be compliant with all codes means it DOES matter which wire goes to the breaker. If the poster ends up switching the neutral, it won’t be to code AND can be hazardous, as the unit would always be “hot”.
I had to recheck my entire house after I bought it after I got lit up changing a bad fixture after a ballast failure (yes, I know, pull the fuse, but one cheats…), I was hooking up the neutral, my arm brushed the suspended ceiling rail and I got— 110volt tingle.
I finished hooking the thing up, then rewired the thing at the box RIGHT.