What Is Line And Load

Put simply, “line” refers to the wires that feed electricity, and “load” refers to the wires that move it along. A line wire carries power from the source to a device or an appliance. The load wire moves that power to the next device on the chain.

How do you identify a line and load?

Load Wire - Generally connected to the top half of your switch. If the wire is coming from the top of the switch box, it is likely your load wire. Line Wire - Generally connected to the bottom half of your switch. In some cases, line wires are marked with “line”, “pwr”, or a lightning bolt symbol.

Is line or load the hot wire?

Line is always hot. Load is the wire going from the switch to the device. Load will only be hot if the switch is closed.

Which is line and load on outlet?

There are two types of wires attached to the receptacle. The “line” wires are the incoming power from the breaker box and the “load” wires are the outgoing power that travels down the circuit to the next outlet.

Which color wire is load?

So, what color is the load wire? Load wires are mostly black, but red can also be used as a secondary load wire. They are also connected to the switch's top half, while line wires are connected to the switch's bottom half.

What is a load in a circuit?

An electrical load is simply any component of a circuit that consumes power or energy. In a household setting, the most obvious examples of electrical loads include light bulbs and appliances.

Is white wire a line or load?

One of the black wires receives power from the service panel; the other sends it on to other loads on the circuit. The white wires allow current passing through the outlet and the other loads on the circuit to return to the panel.

What is a line in electricity?

An electric line is a wire or conductor or associated equipment used for transmitting, transforming, or supplying electricity at a voltage greater than extra low voltage. However, an electric line does not include: A wire or conductor directly used in converting electricity into another form of energy; or.

What happens if you switch line and load on GFCI?

If you mistakenly connect the LINE wires to the LOAD terminals, the GFCI will not reset and will not provide power to either the GFCI receptacle face or any receptacles fed from the GFCI.

How do I know which wire is hot?

Hot wire is identified by its black casing. This is the main color of hot wire for most homes. However, other hot wires can red, blue, or yellow, although these colors can indicate a different function besides powering an outlet.

Do you need a load wire?

A switch has to have a load wire, otherwise it wouldn't turn anything on and off. It sounds like you have be dealing with 3-way switches where the white wire is used to carry current. Sometimes in these cases the white wire will have a black mark or black piece of tape on it to identify it as potentially hot.

Is live in load or supply?

The load line that is the cable through which the power supply supplies power to the electrical equipment, which must consume electrical energy, so the load line is the live wire. BTW, the live wire is the power line that carries electricity in the circuit.

Does line and load matter for regular outlets?

Normal receptacles don't have "line" and "load". That is not a thing. That concept is only associated with GFCI and AFCI where the "Load" provides a protected zone to additional outlets (that are properly wired).

Can I connect line and load together?

Yes you can do that. Make sure they both pairs go in the line side of the GFCI. Take note that this means that the circuit on the load side of the junction box is not GFCI protected.

Why would an outlet have 2 hot wires?

There are two black and two white wires in an outlet box because the outlet is in the middle of a series circuit, accepting power from another source and sending it on. Two cables are hot wires, bringing the power in and carrying it onward to the next.

What is line wire?

Line Wire: This is the wire that provides the 120 Volts of power to your switch from the power company. It is usually a black wire. The Brilliant Control can automatically detect which wire is “Line” and which is “Load”, so they are interchangeable when installing in a single-pole configuration.

How do I identify a wire?

If you don't get a voltage reading the wire is neutral. If you get a reading the wire is hot you can

Which wire is live neutral?

Wire	Colour
Live	Brown
Neutral	Blue
Earth	Yellow and Green

What's the purpose of a load?

Load affects the performance of circuits with respect to output voltages or currents, such as in sensors, voltage sources, and amplifiers. Mains power outlets provide an easy example: they supply power at constant voltage, with electrical appliances connected to the power circuit collectively making up the load.

What is the function of load?

Initializes a database and loads it from an input data file. The Load function initializes a database and loads it from an input data file. It can be used for initial loading of a database, as part of a database reorganization, or for reloading a database after changing the DBD definition.