Why would a ground wire get hot?

Answer 1

If you mean "hot" as in "electrically live", this wall outlet is dangerous and should be investigated and repaired urgently by a licensed electrician. The reason is probably that the wire going into the grounding terminal on the wall outlet is not actually connected back to the grounding point on the main supply panel where the circuit breakers are mounted. This would happen if the person who installed that wall outlet did not check that all the connections were properly made.

If there is a separate ground wire it would come from the breaker panel in a cable along with the "hot" and "neutral" wires. If the ground wire was not actually "grounded" it would pick up the electric field surrounding the "hot" and would make the ground wire - or even the whole wall outlet if it was made from metal - seem to be "live" to the touch. In such a "fault" situation the ground wire and front panel (if metal) can make the neon lamp in a test screwdriver light up quite brightly when it is touched to the ground wire or the front panel. This situation must be fixed urgently because if the ground wire connected to the wall outlet is not connected to the actual grounding point in your house it will not be able to do its job! That is to protect users if any fault occurs in any appliance that is plugged into the socket outlet or any fault that may occur to the wiring to the outlet from the panel. The reason for having a ground wire is that, if it is properly connected, when an accident or some other damage occurs, that causes an abnormal high current to flow in the "hot" wire because the fault causes current to get into the ground wire, the circuit breaker or fuse on the main supply panel should break the circuit to protect users from getting an electric shock or from the wiring catching on fire due to current overload. Until ground wires were routinely installed under the latest wiring codes or regulations, that kind of fault condition used to be a common cause of house fires because, if there was no ground connection to a socket outlet and such a fault condition occured, the breaker or fuse was not made to trip to break the connection. So people were not being protected from electrocution and there was nothing to stop the wiring getting hot or catching on fire. To to help prevent such fault conditions being able to occur, Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) and Residual Current Devices (RCDs) were invented. These are very effective and are now commonly installed to protect socket outlets placed in rooms or areas which can be subject to water spray or generally damp/humid condtions, such as kitchens, bathrooms, shower rooms, outdoors garden points, etc., where the risk of electric shock is greatest even from a 120 Volts supply. In Europe, where all power sockets and lighting circuits run on 230 Volts, the wiring regulations insist that such GFCI or RCD devices must be installed to protect the power socket outlets in all new installations of mains electrical wiring in houses and all kinds of buildings used for apartment homes, offices, shops, factories, workshops, etc. <><><>

As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

Answer 2

In a 120V outlet, the white wire, or neutral shouldn't be hot. Either the polarity has been reversed at the breaker panel, or power is somehow being backfed into the neutral bus bar. Contact an electrician right away so as to have this problem safely resolved.

Answer 3

Assume by hot that you mean a temperature differential that is warmer than other outlets; and not hot in the sense that there is a voltage present.

High temperature is caused by current flowing in a circuit. You could have corroded wire inside the outlet that was causing a high current to flow between the black wire and white or ground wires. If it were a dead short then the current would be sufficient to trip the breaker.

If you have something plugged into the outlet, unplug it and see if the problem persists. You could have a device pulling too much current, but not enough to trip the breaker.

Get an electrician to look at this if you can't find a reason. It could cause a fire hazard if it gets hot enough. It is possible you have a bad breaker or there may be another outlet in the same circuit drawing too much current, but an electrician can tell you this.

One thing you should do is turn off the breaker controlling the outlet and see if the outlet cools off. If it does leave the breaker off. If it is still hot maybe there is a heat source other than the current, such as a baseboard electric heater on an opposing wall.

Another Answer

Unfortunately, the receptacles/plugs used in North America tend to get quite hot when they are supplying their maximum load (1.5 kW). This is normal and due to the very small cross-sectional area of the connectors.

The type of socket outlet / plug used in the UK uses connectors with a very much greater cross-sectional area, and they should never get warm, much less 'hot', even when supplying their maximum load (3 kW). If a UK socket outlet/plug combination gets warm then it indicates a problem with the connectors.

Answer 4

A ground wire should never be hot. There is a problem with that receptacle

Answer 5

The hot wire on a 3 prong receptacle is on the right hand side when you face the receptacle straight on.