switch loop wiring - basement lights - wiring diagram included

Question

I had to replace the middle light switch. I found the following cabled and found this very odd. Never ran into it. Seems like its called switch loop wiring? Would this be switch loop? Also all the black wires are wire nutted together in the light box and none connect to the light switches. Only white cables are connected to the light switches. The grounds also are wire nutted together and none connect to the light switches (not show in the drawing). If I disconnect the neutral that runs from the junction box none of the lights work. It appears they are using that neutral to get back to the panel? Is this a valid assumption? Has anyone seen this setup before? The lights themselves are workshop lights with the long tubes.

Answer 1

I'm guessing you could call this a modified switch loop. The loop switch I'm used to seeing is hot and neutral at the light, neutral connected to the fixture and always hot to a switch and a switched hot back to fixture... no neutral at switch.

What you've got here is a switched neutral modified loop which is bad because the fixtures are always hot even when the switch is off. This is probably not to code depending on where you're at. A way to fix it would be to tape all your white wires black and your black wires white at all the locations and switching the black and white wires in the junction box so all the black wires become neutrals and the white wires become hot. again, might not be to code depending on location. If the basement is unfinished, you might want to rip all this out and do it right.