Hello. I have outdoor 110 Volt AC lighting. Coming from the conduit which goes to the lighting, I have 3 insulated copper wires, but they are all the same color and I cannot tell which is hot, neutral or ground. Is there anyway I can do this with a multi-meter or some other tool? Obviously I intend to apply power & ground to these wires.

Thanks in advance!

Get one of these:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_169-72...t_qty_sales_dollar|1

It will chirp when closest to the hot wire. You may have to separate the wires so you can isolate results to just one wire.

and when you figure it out, recode the wires by wrapping black tape around the hot wire, white tape around the neutral, and green tape around the ground. schnooks should have coded the wires immediately after installing them.

not just any tape, you should be using scotch 35 for the colors, and 33+ for black.

Thanks, but these wires are not from a hot circuit. The three wires are from an non accessible light fixture and they are all the same color. Is there a way I can tell which should be connected to the hot wire, neutral wire and ground wire?

if the fixture and connector box are inaccessable, then, no. there is no way to tell. this sort of thing is why I am always railing about recoding your wires as you go.

do you even know if this is a 120 or 240 fixture?

sounds like the best plan is to abandon this in place, and look to another solution if you need light in this area.

If I'm understanding your question, you could use a meter or continuity tester by touching one wire of the meter to a ground such as a copper water line or to the ground on another working socket that isn't on the same breaker,and the other to a wire that you are trying to identify, if you get continuity then you have found the hot wire.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nona,

that's what I initially thought, until the poster said the light was someplace they can't get to, and it's not powered, and someplace in the middle are these three unmarked same-color wires.

impho not fooling with, probably abandoned in place earlier, and I see no good reason to play with it to find out why it was AIP.

it's no trick to put a ohmmeter across the three lines and find if there is continuity to the bulb, or ballast, on two of them. but if that's open, you wasted your time. it's inaccessable, so you can't fix it.

black hole project, move on.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: swschrad,

Thank you both