The fixture still works if you reverse the wires, but the socket sleeve will be hot, and anyone who touches it while changing a bulb can get a shock. When wired correctly, the socket sleeve is neutral and only the small metal tab at the base of the socket is hot. If an appliance is plugged into the receptacle, then electric current will flow through the appliance and then back to the wider prong, the neutral.
The neutral wire carries the current back to the electrical panel and from there to the earth ground. When this happens, a lamp, for example, will have its bulb socket sleeve energized rather than the little tab inside the socket. There is no positive and negative side in a standard volt AC wall outlet. The wider slot in the outlet should be the neutral side and the narrower slot should be the hot. If for a two prong plug, the wider prong is the neutral, the narrower is the hot.
The neutral wider prong gets connected to the ribbed conductor, the hot narrower prong gets connected to the non-ribbed conductor. Yes it really does matter. The answer is safety of course! Ground wire acts as defense against unstable electrical currents. But when an electrical accident such as a short circuit occurs, the ground wire takes the unstable current away from your electrical system and sends it toward the ground.
Ground wire is easily identified by its green casing. But not all homes may have it. To tell if your home has ground wire, check your outlets. If your outlets have three prongs, then your home has ground wire. If there are only two prongs, then ground wire may not be utilized. If the latter is the case, we recommend consulting with Roman Electric to help determine if your home can be retrofitted with new ground wire.
Check back at Roman Electric for more electrical wiring tips! And contact us for affordable and quality wiring and rewiring services. Close Menu. Looking for commercial services?
Hot Wire Hot wire is used as the initial power feed to a circuit. My house was wired such that the slot to the left of the ground connection is Neutral. Since this involves safety, and I don't believe one should dismiss off such matters without understanding them, I ask whether anybody can explain the apparent swap on the new outlets. Re: Which side of an electrical outlet should be Neutral? BUT in saying that Thailands power system is so fu ked up anything could apply.
I installed double poled circuit breakers in my home because at the time Neutral was floating at 50 VAC above ground. Post by rickfarang » February 2, , pm Its only more puzzling now. Is Australia different from much of the world? Maybe I some Australian outlets. See: Puzzling. Post by Alchai » February 2, , pm rickfarang wrote: Everywhere I look, the if you look at a three pronged outlet with the ground connection pointing down,the slot on the left is Neutral.
Post by fdimike » February 3, , am Alchai The location of neutral and positive are important when using a light bulb or appliance etc. See below: PolarizationPolarized plugs and sockets are those designed to connect only in one orientation, so the live and neutral conductors of the outlet are connected respectively to the live and neutral poles of the appliance. Polarization is maintained by the shape, size, or position of plug pins and socket holes to ensure that a plug fits only one way into a socket.
The switch of the appliance is then put in the live wire. If the neutral wire were interrupted instead, the device would be deactivated but its internal wiring would still be live. This is a shock hazard; if the energized parts are touched, current travels to earth through the body.
Devices that especially present this hazard include toasters and other appliances with exposed heating elements, which with reversed polarity can remain live even when they are cool to the touch. Screw-in light bulbs with reversed polarity may have exposed portions of the socket still energized even though the lamp is switched off. Transposition of the live and neutral wires in the wiring to sockets defeats the safety purpose of polarized sockets and plugs; a circuit tester can be used to detect swapped wires.
Unpolarized plugs and sockets are those which can connect either way around, so live and neutral wires are connected arbitrarily. Post by FrazeeDK » February 3, , pm 3 prong polarization testers are available..
You plug it into a standard 3 prong outlet and the lights on it show you if the socket is wired "backwards".. After having our place built I found over half the sockets "backwards" and had an electrician correct them.. A few years later I wondered if having light outlets, fans, or AC units wired "backwards" would effect performance of bulb life.. When I replaced quickly burned out incadescent bulbs with more modern screw in fluorescents, my burn-out rate when done significantly Post by Alchai » February 4, , am fdimike wrote: Alchai The location of neutral and positive are important when using a light bulb or appliance etc.
Post by fdimike » February 4, , pm I realize it came out of Wikipedia. I simply wanted to point out the reason for polarized electrical systems and this explanation was easy to understand. The electrical code in the US mandates polarized plugs on all appliances, lamps etc for safety reasons just as it mandates a grounded earthed electrical plug on all major appliances, computers etc. I would think adding this level of safety would be a good thing here in Thailand considering the poor state of the elctrical system.
Safety is just not a part of the Thai vocabulary. Post by Alchai » February 4, , pm So if I want to plug in an electrical appliance, say a lamp, how do I know which way to plug it in to ensure live commects to live and neutral to neutral being a 2 pin plug?
0コメント