Difference between live, ground
and neutral
A standard electrical system
basically consists of live, neutral and ground. Electric current usually flows
from live (also known as the HOT) to neutral (serves as return path for the
current flow).
A lot of mains powered
appliances needs these three wires to work safely but only two of the wires are
used when the appliance works properly. These are the live (red) and the
neutral (black) wires.
- The Live Wire:
This wire carries current to the appliance at a high voltage. In
fact, it is the that carries the 220v AC used by most of our home appliances.
-Neutral wire:
It is the return path for an ac
circuit which is supposes to carry current in normal condition. This current
may be due to phase imbalance, 3rd or 5th harmonics that
is the reason it is expected to carry current under normal condition. The
neutral wire completes the circuit and carries current away from the
appliance. This wire in essence carries or returns the 220v of the live wire
back to the source. It is a wire with zero potential (volt).
Though it serves nothing in the
conduction process, but only supports the live wire to maintain its potential
through which mainly the current flows into our home.
-Earth wire:
The earth wire
(green/yellow) is a safety wire and connects the metal case of the appliance to
the earth.
Many a times, electrical and
electronics devices/equipment due to physical exertion becomes short, they can
even give shocks upon being touched. In such cases, earth wire which is present
mostly in every devices and also in the main plug shunts the heavy current to
the ground instead of surging through your body, thereby saving you the damage.
Earth wire is used for bypassing
the current in case of emergency to the ground. A Ground represents an electrical path,
normally designed to carry fault current when an insulation breakdown occurs
within electrical equipment. Connections to the electrical path (Ground) are
made convenient for the installation of electrical equipment. Some current will
always flow through the ground path. This current will come from a number of
normal sources.
Earth wire is normally thicker than live wire and it is usually tied to
anything conductive surrounding wiring in order to prevent faults current from
passing through the personnel or user of the device
This is the reason every main plug
at home have got three insertions, one for live, another one for neutral, and
the last one for the earth wire.
Ground is just a reference, think of
it as the drain that sucks up all the electricity (as an extremely simplified
view). Remember, earth ground is tied to a lot of the metal cases holding your
wiring, and then tied to a pole thats several feet deep into the soil.
Also, before I round up, Neutral and
Ground are connected together in the distribution panel and note that all
neutral are ground but not all ground are neutral!!!
Can ground (earth) be used as neutral?
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