I was installing a TP-link HS210 3-way smart switch in my dinning room. On the side with the mains power I do have a neutral wire, but on the other switch I have no neutral wire from the wall (for that breaker). I do have a switch that's on the kitchen breaker right next to it, though, and that has a neutral and ground.
In my breaker box, both the neutral and grounds appear to be on the same row of lugs.
Running the neutral wire from the switch to the ground works, and I'm thinking it's because it's all going to the same place. This specific switch didn't explicitly say to do this, but other switches I've installed did.
Now, I could run the switch's neutral to the neutral on the kitchen circuit. I didn't at first because I had the other switch wired wrong, so I thought it was the no neutral switch causing issues.
Duh, I wasn't thinking about the ground rod (see why I'm not an electrician?).
I appreciate your repitition of how voltage flows, always back to the source - this is the first I've heard this (again, not an electrician), I've always thought of it as flowing to the "easiest" path (I have more background in low voltage DC, , which is similar, but different. Learning DC first made learning AC harder, in my opinion). Seems this idea about voltage flow needs all your repitition - keep it up.
Yea, code is always about baseline safety - there's an electrician in my extended family (first licensed in the 80's), and we've occasionally talked about how much he's had to study over the years. I've seen how much new code has come in since about '85. Lessons learned from fires (or worse), I'm sure.
Thanks for your extensive explanations, I'm gonna have to read this a few times to fully grok the why's. Good stuff!
Phew! I thought I was beginning to sound like a broken record lol
I'm also not an electrician, but I did study some electrical engineering at uni. And for my job, I've spent a non-insignificant amount of time disabusing people of the awful stock phrase "electricity returns to ground"; it actively causes unbound confusion and the subsequent questions which somehow befall me.