Hi all,
I am an electrical student, actually having finished my course work now. I have worked with my electrician family for hands on experience, yet there are still some things I come across that throw me off a little. Today, I added a 4 prong 240v dryer receptacle for a friend. This is a task I have done many times. In fact, this is something I seem to need to do more than anything else. Well, I took off the old 3 prong receptacle, and when I did I noticed the cable was a three wire cable. I tested them to ensure their function. Here were the wires: one black, which was a hot 120v; one white, also a hot 120v; and one bare copper wire, (non current-carrying, no voltage) which was being used as a neutral on the old receptacle. Now, it's clear that the house was wired previous to the 1996 code changes, which now require the four wire, four prong setup on dryer circuits consisting of two line, one neutral, and one bare grounding wire. Anyway, I wired the new four prong receptacle as follows: the white and black hots into their corresponding slots, and then I wired the bare copper wire into the neutral slot, considering that it (the neutral) is sometimes needed to carry unbalanced currents. I, of course, left the grounding slot of the receptable open. Was this correct? My textbook says that it is not required that new cable be installed if one runs into this situation, only that the electrician use a "harness" to tie the neutral somehow to the ground, which would then tie them together to the frame of the dryer. Should I make a tie/bond between the neutral and gounding slot, as technically there is not grounding protection on the dryer scheme as of right now. Of course, the dryer works just fine, but I want to do this according to "the book." Please help. I very much appreciate it.
[This message has been edited by Chester (edited 04-24-2004).]
