My shop came pre-wired; some circuits are 110 and some are 220.
I wanted to add 1 circuit at 110 and 1 at 220 so I look at the panel to see how it had been done.
The 110 seems to make sense; power comes in on 1 wire and returns on the other.
The 220 has 3 wires, 2 hot and a ground. Question?? how does the power return to the panel.
Thanks,
Hank.
Replies
The "hot" 110 wire varies from +110 to -110 (alternating current) the return line is "neutral". The cycle completes 60 times a second (i.e., 60 Hz)
The 220 is simply two of these "hot" wires that are out of synch 180 degrees so that when one is +110, the other is -110 (or 220 difference). No neutral is needed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_current
I would suggest if you have to ask this question, you probably shouldn't be fooling around in a breaker box.
Edited 1/4/2007 1:44 pm ET by byhammerandhand
You are right hammer; I shouldn't be fooling around in the panel.
Just for your info it is 50 hz; mains are 3 hot wires and an insulated ground.
The panel has 5 horizontal busses; top one is ground (striped green and yellow); next 3 are 110 each (brown, black, blue with black tape) and bottom one is neutral (blue).
Some 4 wire circuits use all 3 busses at 110 plus a ground.
There are 36 fuses; 20a 16a and 26a; color coded blue, grey and yellow.
Each individual wire has its own fuse.
Mains are 3-50a fuses.
Not your typical setup but seems simple enough.
Thanks,
Hank.
You are describing a three phase panel, so you are probably in an industrial building and at 50 Hz not in the U.S.
John W.
Thanks John,
Shop was industrial; went out of business here and moved to Holland.
Hank.
I'm not an electrician but:
Electric power does not 'return to the panel.'
110 usually has two coated wires and one uncoated copper wire and for 20amp circuits use "2-12 w/ground."
The black wire, the 'hot' wire, goes into the circuit breaker.
The white wire, the 'neutral' wire, goes to the vertical bar on,
usually, side of the panel, the one closest to and attached to the panel that holds the circuit breakers.
The copper wire, the 'ground' wire, goes on the other vertical bar that is NOT connected to the panel.
220 can be run, (I don't know if its code or not but it works with 2-12 w/ground as long as you are not going over 20 amps) with both the black and the white wires to the DOUBLE circuit breaker and the copper wire to the ground bar. 220v circuit breakers have two sides, or legs, one for the black and one for the white.
Now some of the electric hot shots probably take take issue with some that I have written, or expand on it.
pins
Thanks pins,
So far I've managed to hook up the compressor 110V 20A and the table saw 220V 20 A.
No lights yet but am working on it.
Hank.
Since were talking electricity:1. How do you get 3 phase vs single phase?2. How do you get 440 & 880? Is it a totally different service, need a step-up transformer, or something different? Thanks.
1. How do you get 3 phase vs single phase?
1a. 120v (single phase)-voltage goes from 0v to +120v to 0v to -120v to 0v either 50 or 60 times a second depending on the system you're on.
1b.240v (could be called 2 phase)-one line same as above the other is shifted 180degrees so during the same cycle it goes from 0v to -120v to 0v to +120v to ov.
1c. Three phase has three lines with a phase shift of 120degrees. See the png file below from Wilkapedia.
2. How do you get 440 & 880? Is it a totally different service, need a step-up transformer, or something different?
2. The voltage would depend on the input and output of a transformer, it could be one furnished by the utility company or a step up or stepdown transformer that you own. Changeing from single phase to three phase requires a phase converter.
Jack
Thank you.
You are welcome, be careful and probably get some local advice.pins
flam,
The electric company's power lines come into your panel as 220V. One side of the 220 line is a red wire, the other is a black wire. There is also a white neutral wire and it is attached to the neutral bar (bus) in your breaker box. The neutral wire and bar are also connected to a good quality Earth ground (usually a cold water pipe). As you described, both the red and black wires are "hot." The voltage between them is 220. The voltage from either of them to neutral (ground) is 110.
(Yes at any instant in a cycle of the 60 Hz/sec pattern, one of the 110 sides is positive and the other is negative with respect to ground. But for AC circuits this fact is irrelevent.)
Your 110 outlets are supplied by power from either one or the other hot lines (red or black) with a return line from the outlet back to the neutral bar. The return line should be white. There should also be a ground wire from the breaker box's neutral (ground) bar to the outlet. This ground line does not carry current.
220 outlets are supplied by lines taken from both the red and black supply lines. The wires supplying the outlet should also be red and black. These lines are the "supply and return current " lines. Along with the red and black lines there may be a white wire from the breaker box neutral (ground) bar to the outlet box. This is a line meant to carry return current from either the red or black line, in which case there is 110 volts in such a circuit. There also should be a ground wire from the breaker box neutral (ground) bar to the outlet. This is not a current carrying line.
Rich
Thanks Rich,
I have 4 wires coming into the building; does that mean 330V service plus a ground??
Also we dont use the bare copper grounding wire here and the colors are probably European.
Hank.
I believe you have 3-phase power. Measure the 3 hot wires against ground. Each should be 220-230V
Thanks Rich,
I haven't measured the 3 hot wires yet; no meter.
I AM running a temporary drop light from a duplex; a 2 wire circuit; 60W bulb; can you do this on a 220-230v hot wire??
Also do you balance the loads amongst the 3 busses??
Hank.
Edited 1/5/2007 7:54 pm ET by flamingoone
It can get pretty complicated balancing a 3 phase system. Your going to need professional help. Check out some of the web sites, you'll see what I mean.
Thanks Omah,
By balancing I meant the connected loads from all of the circuits; should the total load be divided equally amongst the 3 hot lines?
Also all of my equipment is US 120/240V 60hz.
To get started I WAS using a small US contractor saw 120V 60hz on 127V 50hz single phase and it worked well although the blade tip speed was slower.
Now I have 3 phase power; how will this affect everything especially 240V motors using 2 lines. Might it be simpler just to swap motors for 50hz ones??
I do have a local retiree from WEBCO water and electric Bonaire to do the panel work but we have the language difficulty and I would like to know what is happening rather than just watching someone else doing the work.
Hank.
OK . I have read the treatise by Rick Christopherson as well as onother lengthy piece I came across . It looks as though I need to run a ground (a fourth wire ) from the ground bus (which I will install on the interior surface of the sub panel) to the ground bus of the main panel. The sub panel ground bus is the place to attatch the bare ground wires for the 120, volt circuts. The neutral wires from the 240, volt circuits connect to the neutral (insulated) bus in the sub panel.
This whole 30, amp sub panel is fed from a 30, amp breaker in the main panel.
Is this the way to do it
Thanks , Russ
That all depends. What amp service you have. what yuor load is coming off your main panel for the main part of the house. what you expect your load to be coming off of the sub panel. What size and type of wire or cable is feeding the sub panel. If you could glean enough off of the electrical treatise to get you as far as you've gotten already, the next step after youv'e figured out the above questions would be to balance your loads. you might be able to squeze a few more amps out of a balaced panel than one thats a little bit lopsided. By the way 30 amps sounds a little low for a subpanel feed. But if all you have is a #10 feeder than you had better stick to it. If you have the room to go to a 50 amp and youare going to run an extra wire for a ground maybe nows time to up grade.
Again, thanks for sharing your wisdom;
You're the best!
Russ
De nada Russ ,stay safe and more power to you.
"The sub panel ground bus is the place to attatch the bare ground wires for the 120, volt circuts. The neutral wires from the 240, volt circuits connect to the neutral (insulated) bus in the sub panel."
240V circuits don't have neutrals, though 120/240V circuits, like those that serve a clothes dryer or range, do. In a subpanel, the neutrals (properly called "grounded conductors" in NEC-speak) all go to a bus that's insulated from the case, and is connected to the neutral/ground bus in the main panel (usually). All the grounds (properly called "equipment grounding conductors" in NEC-speak) go to a separate bus that's bonded to the case (but not the neutral), which in turn is bonded to the service equipment (usually the main panel).
There may be a bonding screw in your neutral bus, usually colored green, to bond the neutral bus to the cabinet. Be sure to remove it after you install a ground bus and move the grounds.
You're only allowed to feed a subpanel with three conductors if it's in a separate building, and even then only if there aren't any other metallic pathways between the two buildings. At that point, it's basically the same as the three-conductor service into your main panel (asuming it's the service equipment).
If in doubt, have an electrician take a look.
Be seeing you...
Edited 1/9/2007 11:39 am ET by TKanzler
A big thanks for your help. The sub panel is in an attatched garage on the opposite side of the house from the service entrance panel. The story on which the main panel is located is all finished walls, (sheetrocked). There was an electric hot water heater which I had previously removed, connected to a 30 amp breaker in the main. I spliced onto this line, ran it up into the next story, through kitchen cabinets , then into and across 50' of attic.
When I installed the sub panel, I attached the neutrals from the 240's and grounds from the 120's all to the neutral bus. Now , from your and OMAH's good advise I will install a new bus attached to the sub panel box into which all the 120 grounds will attach, then run a cable from ground bus in the sub panel,to the ground bus in the main .
WE live in hope, so I hope this is correct.
Thanks, Russ
I’ve seen this thread a couple of times, but there are so many different topics in this discussion I can’t keep them straight. I’ll address a couple of topics that caught my eye.
Quack:
Because your subpanel is in the attached garage, you must run 4 wires from the main to the sub (ground, neutral, and 2-hots). This much you already knew. In the new subpanel, you must isolate all ground and neutral connections. This means that no white wires are connected to anything that is grounded, including the chassis of the panel. I believe you also already knew this.
ALL circuits must have a ground wire going to the ground bus of the new panel, no exceptions. Virtually none of your 240-volt circuits will have a neutral, so they just get connected to the two hots, plus the ground. All of your 120 volt circuits will have a neutral, so they connect to the separate neutral bus, plus the separate ground.
Whoa, wait a minute! If I just read this correctly, you tapped into an abandoned water heater circuit to feed your subpanel. This raises a major red flag, because it is not likely that the original wire was 4-conductor, was it? This means that you are feeding your subpanel neutral from an uninsulated/bare ground wire. If this is what you have done, then you need to stop now, and start over with the correct wire. This is not an option.
I wasn’t going to comment before, but in light of the above, you cannot run your conductor through your kitchen cabinets either.
Regarding Utility Power Meters:
RMS power really has no bearing in this discussion. Who ever brought this up was confusing RMS with Real Power. The two are not related. Just for reference, 120-volts is already the RMS value of the true 170-volt peak-to-peak value.
You were probably thinking of Real Power versus Reactive Power. This part is correct for residential meters, but many industrial meters actually read the total power. Real Power and Reactive Power are related by the powerfactor, which is a function of the phase angle between current and voltage for inductive/capacitive loads. Unless you are an industrial facility, this is beyond your control, and is not something you need to be concerned about.
Hodge-Podge Topics:
Balancing loads is a good thing, but you don’t need to get carried away with this unless you are getting close to fully loading your electrical system down. Since you don’t always know what loads will be running at the same time, you really can’t balance the loads in most cases. You just try to spread things out a little.
Not all 3-phase systems are the same, so it is difficult to address specific issues. If you have a 120/208-volt balanced 3-phase system, then it is correct that you cannot get 240-volts for single-phase loads. This means that your tools will operate below their rated horsepower, no differently than if you used underrated extension cords. In this situation, if you have dual-voltage motors, then you are better off rewiring the motor for 120-volt operation.
If you have a hybrid 120/240-volt 3-phase system, then you will have 240-volts available for single-phase equipment, but you still have only two phases available for 120-volts. The third phase to neutral is called the “stinger” leg and will have a voltage of 208 volts instead of 120 volts. Hopefully the image below works.
View Image
HOLY-WOW! Was I screwed up, and am I glad you read my last message!
Looks like I've got a little rewiring to do. I'ts a good thing I'm between projects.
By the way, thanks for writing your tome explaining basic electricity for the woodshop; I have not read these things since my one college course on circuits and machines, and that was 45, years ago...Yes, they had invented electricity then, the course, lecturer was Ben Franklin.
A therory question for you.
With 3 phase you only get 208volts. If I am correct that is because you do not have a full 180 degree phase shift. If that is the case, and a capacitor cause a delay, If you put a capacotor (of the right value to dalay that leg so it is 180degrees from the other) in series with one leg would you not then get 240volts?
Jack
No. The voltage phase angles are locked in by the utility and you are not going to be able to alter them with capacitors. It's not like a phase converter where the third phase is generated with the assistance of the capacitors.
Thanks Rick and Mudman,
I remembered that there was a time delay associated with a capacitor but forgot to take into account the output being hooked to the same phase.
Jack
A simple capacitor or RC cirtuit isn't goint to change the voltage in a usefull way. You are correct in your thinking, but it dosent have to do with the phase seperation. Though it is hard to get from some utility companies there is such a thing as a 120/240 volt transformer. That is what I have in my shop; luckily the utility company in my area offers this as a standard transformer.
Basicly the voltages are set by the transformer and how it is tapped.Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
Hank, I'm glad you opened this up again. 3 phase systems are fairly complicated as I understand them. since you do have computer access I would suggest that you go to your search engine and look up everything on 3 phase systems. If any one out there has any experiance with it maybe they could help out also. 3 phase is a little out of my league. You can't get 240v out of a three phase direct as I understand it. you can only get 208v. I could be wrong about this but there might be a little black box out there than can fix it up. I know you can get a phase converter to run a three phase motor on a single phase system. Going back the other way I just don't know.
I may be mistaken but as I remember it , your meter reads RMS voltage not peak to peak. The 240VAC that comes into residential use has one phase shifted 180 degrees from the other so the sine wave of one is a mirror image of the other. Because they are out of sync as exact opposites gives you a higher RMS voltage. In 3 phase even though the peak to peak voltage may be the same the 3 phases are out of sync by 120 degrees so the RMS of any two phases would be lower.
I can't remember the formula for RMS (Root Mean Square) but if you think of it as a form of averaging it might help.
Jack
RMS = peak / sqrt(2) if I recall correctly.
Hey thanks jack but it's Hank who needs the information about the 3 phase configuration. I came across that formula last night and didn't want to get into sqare roots at that time, however the little I do remember from experiance is that you end up with 208vs on a 3 phase system at 50 hz. Maybe hank should post a new topic on the forum heading his problem as something like, "3 phase, can I hook uo my single phase 220 table saw to it?"
"Yes, at any instant during the cycle of the 60 Hz pattern, one of the 110 sides is positive and the other is negative with respect to ground."
This statement isn't quite correct as at the instant each leg crosses from the positive to the negative all the wires have the same voltage (zero). The 110 voltage on a wire is an average so that the peak and trough are more, by a factor of the square of two or 1.7..... As you alluded to, for the practise of wiring, this is not so important.
Electricity - the subject where we are all experts in our own eyes.
Be sure to keep your neutrals and grounds separate if your working with a subpanel; they do not bond untill you get to the main panel, where the main disconnect is.
Thanks Omah,
No sub panel; everything comes off the mains.
Hank.
To answer your question simply, with A.C. (alternating current) the little electrons in the wires run one direction half the time and alternate to running the other direction the other half of the time. So both wires , in either 120VAC or 240VAC, are supply wires half the time and return wires the other half .
Jack
Except when the electrons are in an alternate universe. (approximately 1/11th of the time) Rich
I didn't want to get to deep into physics.
Jack
Thank you Jack.
Simple is what I need.
Hank.
How's the weather down there? i'll bet its nice. we got a freak snow this year 2' in alburquerque N.M. I'm north of there. Anyway the answer to your original question is that like the other posters said; the returning current on a 220 circuit is either one or the other legs as they are alternating, all the the way back to the transformer. On a 110 circuit you need a neutral to carry the current back.
Temperature averages 82F.
Little breezy 15-20K.
Shovel some snow for us.
Hank.
No
John W.
Yeah, Its not correct. You must keep the grounds [green or bare copper]conected to the grounding Buss bar, bonded to the sub panel box, separate from the neutrals which are connected to a separate insulated bus bar. They only get bonded together in the main panel.
It looked to me as though the two bars were connected together. Thank you for your prompt reply. I"ll go back into the box and try to do it right. Again, much obliged for your help.
Russ
They need to be connected in the main panel , not in the sub panel.
Omah, "They need to be connected in the main panel , not in the sub panel." Why is that? Rich
Edited 1/5/2007 8:52 pm ET by Rich14
When neutrals and grounds are connected in the subpanel the neutral current will flow along all of the grounded conductors and any metal ojects that touch them and then back to the service panel. This route is parallel with the neutral current that flows back via the neutral conductor that connects the two panels.
I'm just plain befuddled here! Just checked again and there is in fact only one bus bar (is that the correct terminology) for grounds in the sub panel. So is there any case where the grounds from the 120 circuits and the neutrals should connect to the same bus, essentially connected together. If I"m in goo-goo land with my miserable confusion here , just tell me and I'll go to bed.
Thanks for your patience
Russ
Is the bus bar, that's in the subpanel, insulated from the actual box? If it is insulated from the box, then it is a neutral bus bar and all of the white insulated wires can attach there. You can purchase a bus and install it by connecting it to the panel and put your grounds there. The reason to keep the neutrals seperate from the grounds in the subpanel is explained in the reply post to the other guy.Also you could pick up a book or look up a web site to get a better idea of how to wire it up and balance your loads.
Thanks to everyone who responded.
I now know that I have 3 phase power in the shop.
You can run 2 wire or 3 wire single phase equipment on 3 phase.
The meter is different from single phase; that should have been a clue to me.
Lastly, left by the previous owner, there was an old photo tacked to a cabinet of a gargantuan woodworking machine that did everything; you fed a mahogany tree into this beast and a finished highboy came out the other end; this should also have been a clue.
1 duplex, the compressor and the 220 table saw are running; albeit a little slower; what we call island speed.
Hank.
Although in the US "hot" is used to describe the 220 legs and "neutral" is used to describe the white wire they are all "hot" and they all have an equal potiential to provide current. You can connect any two of the three wires in any configuration and get current (at different voltages). The "nuetral" wire is actually a center tap and the transformer that lowers the line voltage before entering your house, that is why it is half the 220 volt max potiental. If you move the tap over a few windings you could get 80 volts off one side and 140 off the other. If you move the center tap even closer to one side the diferential increases to, lets say 200 volts on one side and 20 volts on the other side. Finally if the "center tap is moved all the way over to one side of the coil you would get 220 one way and 0 the other. In all of these examples the voltage would remain 220 between the two black (or red and black) lines. Also the 60 hertz cycle is always the same wheather it is 220 or 110. 110 is not half the 220 wave it still follows the exact same wave, just with less amplitude (not to be confused with amperage). The only time one side on the wave is lost is when it is rectrified. The only time that lines are not in the exact same cycle (or phase) is when it is a multi phase source. This illustrates the fact that the "nuetral" line is not just a return, and it is not just a ground. It is another HOT wire that comes in to your house or shop like the other two.
Really this is arbitrary information is dosent make anyone wrong in what they have said. It just helps me understand the differences.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
Yeah but the reason everyone thinks of the neutral is that it goes no place and if you touch it you do not zap yourself unless you are holding a hot wire. (thus they are called hot)
For instance in my new house the neutral wire runs to the panel and from their it runs to a line that connects with a big @!#$ rod that was driven into the ground. That is the end of said wire. The hots meanwhile continue on their way back to the power lines running behind the house where they join the big line running on the polls.
Keep in mind this is about all that your average person knows (or for the most part cares) about the way power works. You have 2 wires coming into the house and they pick up a ground. Use either of the hots with a ground and you get 110 (some call it 120) use the hots with each other and you get 220. My new stove needs 4 wires. A "Ground" a Neutral and the two hots. Now lets be honest the first two of these are in reality going to the exact same place.
Doug Meyer
The neutral certainly does go someplace; it goes to the utility's transformer, same as the hots. Yes, the neutral (aka grounded conductor) is connected to the ground rod, thus establishing the neutral as being at ground potential.--
Todd
Yes it is a ground and at the other end their is a ground in the middle their is ground. Saying this is the same as the hots while you can make a technical argument for this, is a good way to confuse the daylights out of people. If I am in mid air and holding either of the two "hot" wires nothing happens. If I am anywhere just holding the ground nothing happens if I am almost anywhere holding either hot and not well insulated I am going to get zapped. This is the difference between the ground and the hots. For your average person that is the truly important part..
As for the 110 or 120 they are used interchangeably to mean the same thing. Take something plugged into one and plug it into the other and not much happens. That being that if you have 110 then you have 220 and if you have 120 then you have 240.
And frankly in truth if someone is having troble understanding this then they should not be messing around with this type of thing.
Doug Meyer.
I think you are absolutely right, you should not be messing around with this type of thing.------------------------------------
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer (1891)
You are absolutely wrong, common is not ground it is just referenced to ground. The ground wire and common are not the same. ground, if every thing is working properly carries no current while the common carries exactly the same amount of current at the hot. If you are going to criticize others you should at least get your facts correct.
Jack
UH guys I hate to start and argument here but in my brand new house that JUST passed electrical inspection the 4 wires from the stove head back to the brecker. Two of them hit the breaker and go to either side of the bus, these are the so called hots, one goes to a comon and the other ends up with all the bare grounds not following said paths both the Ground and the commen end up in the same place and both go out of the box and to the grounding rod. Now want to tell me what the differenct in these to is? Other then that one of them is used durring normal usage and the other is only used is something goes wrong (keeping this to simple languge)
While I have been intentionally keeping this simple I have not been dreaming this stuff up, and someone coming on here when someone askes a question and tossing around enough techno bable to drowned someone is not going to do much good for anyone. That being said if you have to have these kinds of things worked out I don't think you should be messing around with 220.
But if you want to explain to me how three inbond wires can turn into four with out one of them being a duplicate I am willing to sit here and listen. I will concead that in the wire itself thier is a diffenence in that one of them is being used, but in the end they both go to the same place, and that was what i was pointing out. IF that was not the case then I could not use my New 4 wire stove on my neighbors old 3 wire outlet by simply changing the end.
Doug Meyer
You wrote:
Sure. One of them, the neutral ("grounded conductor"), carries current. The other ("grounding conductor") does not.
--
Todd
Edited 1/22/2007 4:39 pm ET by Toto
Doug, your stove has 4 wire because somthing in it uses 120v, a light or a fan perhaps. The burners use 240v. If you disconect the ground wire at the breaker box your stove will still work wit no problem but if you disconnect the common wire at the breaker box the 2240v burners will still work but the light or fan that uses 120v will not. Everything in your house will work if you disconnect the grounds and pull out the ground rode.
Jack
Doug,
This is very dangerous thinking, and this is what causes people to get electrocuted. Just because you see a connection between the two wires (ground and Neutral) it does not mean they are the same. When you see two highways cross each other at an intersection, do you assume that they are the same road, carry the same traffic, or go to the same place? No. The ground and Neutral conductors are connected in only one location, and they have different purposes and different paths; just like two separate roads. The Neutral wire is like an interstate freeway, and is intended to carry large volumes of traffic back to the utility transformer. The ground wire is just a side street, kind of like a runaway truck ramp in the mountains. It doesn’t go anywhere, but when something goes wrong with a vehicle, it provides an alternate path to stop.Now if you mistakenly made the two roads cross at more than one point, then some of the traffic that was supposed to stay on the freeway would veer off onto the side streets. When a problem did arise, the runaway truck ramp would be clogged with other traffic, and it couldn’t serve its intended purpose.That might sound like a rather pedantic explanation, but it is exactly what happens when people mistakenly assume that the ground and Neutral wires are interchangeable or are the same thing.If you permitted normal current to flow through your grounding system, then due to Ohm’s law, the voltage of your grounding system would become elevated. You would be energizing the chassis of appliances, and would completely defeat the purpose of the ground wires.
Rick-
Anyone that did not understand your last post should stay after class. That was a very clever illustration. Thanks!
-Nazard
I am not sure if I understand what you are saying. But in my area the Common Buss and the ground buss are conected. Many older houses (and some new ones) dont even use a seperate ground buss, since they are conected anyway. I those cases the ground and the common of a circuit typically tie into the same lug on the common buss. Leaving the common buss there will be a heavy bare copper wire going to earth and an insulated wire going to the utility companies transformer. In Europe they use only 220v. so their gound system is different. If you live in the States then you definately have a common comming from the pole and an earth ground.Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
You are right, and the technical stuff I was talking about is not whats importaint. What is importaint is that electricity is dangerous and decievingly simple. Really all I should have said is that the common wire is as "live" as the hot wires..... so treat it with due respect as well.Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
We don't just "call" it 120, in our area my meter says it is 120.------------------------------------
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer (1891)
What you say about nuetral not zapping you unless you touch a hot is also true the other way around. You can hold a "hot" wire as well, as long as you dont touch another hot (including the common) wire. The reason that the common hot wire (the white one) was chosen to be grounded to earth is that there are many appliances that do not have a three prong plug (no ground). Because the common is always present in a 110 circuit the circuit is always grounded. The common wire still comes from the same place as the other two--- a transformer somewhere.
What you say is true. Handling a common wire is safer than the hot wires because of the ground system. If you touch a hot wire there are a lot of oportunities to get ahold of the common line, thus completing the circuit. Because the common and the ground are conected most metal and wet objects also common, there by making it more likely to get zapped holding a hot wire.Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
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