wfrench123

Gentlemen, Are you wondering why they made this rule? It is because neutrals are live wires with separate power sources. If you turn off a breaker and a certain circuit is dead, you should be able to disconnect its neutral from the neutral bar, (and the circuit's live and ground wires from the entire panel for that matter) with out dealing with another live wire (neutral in this case) shoved in the same hole. The code shies away from using the word neutral because the neutral isn't actually neutral, it's live, hot, and can kill you. It only becomes a grounded conductor when it is firmly attached to the neutral bar, when it is loose, it's a live wire. On a similar note, I personally believe that neutral wire number labels in panels should be required by the NEC.