Obviously I did _not_ RC about the NEC. From what I'm reading on the list it sounds like the NEC definitely allows sharing a neutral between two 120V branches with opposite phasing. I'm also seeing that the code may or may not allow two branches with the same phasing to share a neutral. Personally I think it's a bad idea but I have seen it approved by the local electrical inspector in a friends house. In his basement was a single duplex outlet with the hot side tab removed to make them independent circuits. The outlets were fed from a 12/3 cable and in the breaker box the hots were both connected to the same phase. This had been installed by a licensed electrician and approved by the inspector when the home was built. Years later when he went to finish the basement my friend and I discovered the arrangement and thought that it was not a good idea (double current in neutral). He had the electrical and building inspectors come over before starting construction and asked the electrical inspector if that arrangement was OK and the inspector said it was fine. With the double current problem when using the same phase and, the subjecting devices to odd voltages if neutral goes up in resistance (or open) problem with using opposing phases, I think I'll stick with separate neutrals for all branches. Paul > -----Original Message----- > From: pic microcontroller discussion list > [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Bob Ammerman > Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 5:43 PM > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: [EE]: Bulb Life -- Burned out bulb resurected > > > > IIRC, The National Electric Code specifically prohibits using a common > > neutral between the two phases. > > I don't believe this is true. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics