On Mar 25, 9:29*am, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Mar 25, 9:02*am, "
wrote:

On Mar 25, 8:34*am, wrote:

I need to add a gfi outlet to my wifes bathroom. I want to add it to the current light switch box. This box currently has two switches, one for the fan,light and one for the vanity light. Each switch has a white wire, a black wire, and a ground. When checking with a voltmeter, the white wire on both switches always has power. Each black wire only has power when the switch is turned on. I am assuming the white wire is the power wire. Can I take these white wires off the switches, connect them to the top and bottom "hot" terminal on the gfi outlet, then feed the switches from both terminals on the other side of the gfi? When I did this messing around with the switches, everything worked properly. I just thought that the black wire was always the constant power wire.

First, this sounds like a hack job done by someone clueless.
The white wires should be the neutrals, not the hots.

Why do you say this is "hack job"?

If the power for the fan comes into the fixture and the power to the
vanity light comes into the vanity fixture, then it is code compliant
to use a single run of romex to bring the hot to the switch box and
back to the fixture.

Yes it is. But I would use the black in the Romex for the wire
that is going to be hot whenever the circuit breaker is on and
re-label the white in the Romex for the path connecting the
the other side of the switch. As is, they have a white that is
hot with no marking.



The switch switches the hot as it should be done.
Granted, the white at the switch should be marked with *black* tape or
marker to designate it as a hot, but there is nothing wrong with how
the switches are wired.


That configuration, albeit for a single switch, is shown he

http://i.stack.imgur.com/ZUimx.jpg


Yes, you could do it that way. But I'd note two things:

1 - That example is correctly taped to identify

2 - IMO, it's still not a good idea to use the white connected to the
live
feed, even with re-marking, when it's not necessary. You have a
choice of using the black, it's right there. I would always use that
to be the
conductor that is directly connected, live to the panel all the
time. I'd use the white with black tape for the switched side.




That said, without a neutral to the GFCI, it won't do it's job, which
is to monitor the current on both the hot and the neutral.


When the OP says "When I did this messing around with the switches,
everything worked properly" I'm not surprised that the switches still
worked since the hot was probably being passed through the GFCI from
the Line terminals to the Load terminals and then to the switches, but
I would be surprised if the GFCI worked as an actual receptacle
without a neutral.

Yeah, if there is no neutral in that switch, then it's not going
as a GFI or as an outlet either. Since he doesn't say what he
actually tested or didn't test, who knows.





*If they
area as you say, I would put white tape on the ends to identify them.

White tape on a white wire? Why?

I meant put black tape on the white.