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Hmm...sounds like the difference between ground and neutral... which actually seems quite subtle for a non-electrician. Ground seems to be mainly a safety thing.
Quote:
A Neutral represents a reference point within an electrical distribution system...a Ground represents an electrical path, normally designed to carry fault current when an insulation breakdown occurs
I get the impression that ground is kind of used as neutral in some circumstances.
Quote:
Under certain conditions, a conductor used to connect to a system neutral is also used for grounding (earthing) of equipment and structures. Current carried on a grounding conductor can result in objectionable or dangerous voltages appearing on equipment enclosures, so the installation of grounding conductors and neutral conductors is carefully defined in electrical regulations. Where a neutral conductor is used also to connect equipment enclosures to earth, care must be taken that the neutral conductor never rises to a high voltage with respect to local ground.
Joined: Jun 08, 2005 Posts: 208 Location: Swaffham-ish, Norfolk
You know, I've wondered about the difference between neutral and EARTH (don't let those US forums get to you) for some time, as well as the difference between neutral and -ve (since some electrical circuits demand that live and neutral know their places, while in others they are entirely interchangable... for some reason this led me to think that live and neutral were somehow comparable to +ve and -ve.)
Wiki, my main source of dubiously-originated knowledge, has been largely useless. The name AC would suggest that the current on the live side sweeps back and forth, taking the voltage with it, between +240v and -240v. And the neutral is just neutral, and does nothing. In theory.
In practice, I shouldn't poke a meat skewer into the neutral hole to find out, cos all the other appliances in the house (and district) are pumping all their live current through neutral in order to give it somewhere to go?
Joined: Apr 19, 2005 Posts: 5794 Location: At the bottom of the garden, amongst the birds and the bees
Ground and Earth are pretty interchangeable nowadays - my dad uses both and he's been dealing with electrical stuff since the 60s.
Basically, the Earth is a safety feature - if something in your electrical equipment goes wrong and there's voltage where there shouldn't be (normally the casing), it should run to ground and stop a potentially lethal (to the equipment AND you) discharge. It the equipment is working properly, the ground DOESN'T CARRY A CURRENT.
A Neutral MIGHT carry a current even if the gear is working correctly.
The important difference is that if the Earth suddenly gets a current running through it, it will blow the fuse/trip the power - because some part of the system has become live that shouldn't, and the best way to deal with that is to cut the power entirely. If the neutral gets a current run through it, it won't always blow the power - because it's designed to take currents if needs be (in fact, in modern equipment it's used a lot more than it was originally designed for).
Beyond that, I don't get involved with electronics - as if being colour-blind wasn't hazard enough, I still can't remember what the new colours are supposed be...
A Neutral MIGHT carry a current even if the gear is working correctly.
The important difference is that if the Earth suddenly gets a current running through it, it will blow the fuse/trip the power - because some part of the system has become live that shouldn't, and the best way to deal with that is to cut the power entirely. If the neutral gets a current run through it, it won't always blow the power - because it's designed to take currents if needs be (in fact, in modern equipment it's used a lot more than it was originally designed for).
Steve
Neutral always carries current - it flows in a loop. Utter nonsense.
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