Question about electricity.

True for a 120V circuit. For a 240V circuit, it flows from one hot to the other

-- no neutral required.

You should never get shocked from the white wire at a receptacle, as long as the wires are connected. If you break a white wire, you can get shocked as the current flows through the load into you via the white wire (assuming you touch the "wrong" side of the broken white wire).

If flows through both, but 99.9% of the current flows in the service neutral wire. The earth is a parallel neutral, but its resistance is way higher than the wire's resistance. The reason the earth is a parallel neutral is that the power company transformer neutral is also grounded to the earth at the pole.

-- Mark Kent, WA

So even if there is power in a nuetral wire I won't get shocked? I'm a bit lost on nuetral wires I guess. If my electrical system is grounded to a water pipe which I touch I don't get shocked... Lost?

other -- no neutral

as the wires are

flows through the load into

neutral wire. The earth is a

resistance. The reason the earth

also grounded to the earth at

the wires are

through the load into

If there is a lot of current being drawn, and you are grounded, you may feel a tingle upon touching the neutral wire at that outlet, simply because of the voltage drop across the neutral wire from the outlet to the panel.

This voltage should never be enough to hurt you, though, if the wiring is to code and the branch circuit isn't heavily overloaded.

It is a bad idea to be touching current-carrying conductors, in any case.

-Z

Voltage is applied to a load. That load sucks appropriate current for its resistance to reduce the voltage to 0 past it (on the neutral wire). The only voltage that could be in a neutral wouldbe the voltage drop in the wire back to the panel. This should never be more than 10V. I've never been shocked by a 12V car battery when touching both terminals, so 10V shouldn't worry you unless you're going to put the neutral in your mouth!

A grounded electrical system will shock you if you get on the ungrounded side. In the US, those shocking wires are the ones other than white, green, or bare. Grounding attempts to keep the white/green/bare at the same potential as the earth so there should no no or little shock hazard on those wires.

-- Mark Kent, WA

"Matt" wrote in message news:cZCKb.4836616$ snipped-for-privacy@news.easynews.com...

Correct, by definition a neutral (white wire) is a "grounded current carrying conductor" the hot (black wire) is a "current carrying conductor". The only way to get shocked is if you make a lower resistance to ground connection then the neutral. This might be possible by standing in water or if you have a damaged or corroded neutral. It only takes a few millamps for you to feel a shock. The grounding point for this conductor is at the source of power. Typically at the service panel or transformer secondary. Any current leaving the transformer secondary wants to return to the neutral connection on the transformer. This is the purpose on the neutral. There is a third wire in your example which is also grounded. It's the green ground wire, sometimes referred to as a safety ground. It is not meant to carry load current, its purpose is to electrically bond all the metal non-current carrying enclosures (e.g. metal boxes) back to the common ground point (e.g. the service panel). This is the wire that attaches to the ground rod or water pipe as you mentioned. Its purpose is to keep the exposed metal parts in an electrical system as close to ground potential as possible so you won't get shocked if the hot conductor touches the metal surface such as during a fault (and the OCD fails to trip). As for being lost, don't worry this can be confusing and may books have been written on the subject. As a matter of fact the largest article in the NEC is Article 250 on grounding and bonding. One of the best books I've read on this subject is IAEI Soars Book on Grounding. If covers many aspects of grounding that I skipped over. good question

If you take a receptacle out of the box, and then just touch the neutral connection, you will be, ideally, at the same potential as the ground. If you just touch the hot connection, and you are insulated from the ground, you will not get a "shock". The electric potential is in your body. Your body will not feel a "shock" until you also touch something that is grounded, like the neutral connection or a ground. Then you are just another appliance on the circuit. If you are going to experiment with this, remember that the frame of the receptacle is probably grounded with a green wire from the box, which is also grounded, and you would get a "shock" if you touched the hot connection and the frame of the receptacle.

The neutral current does not go back to the power house on a neutral wire. The neutral connections are a product of the particular transformer on the pole feeding your house, and possibly several others in the vicinity. The neutral is a center tap on a transformer, or the center of several coils tied together. This neutral goes only to your house, and is also grounded at your home service by a ground rod system or an underground water pipe system.

As long as the neutral wire is grounded better than you are you won't get shocked but even then, you won't get a big shock. The exception is if the neutral wire is broken between your plug and the neutral buss where it originates from in some panelboard. If that wire is broken, YOU are now the ground path and you may get quite a shock. .

In most cases, the neutal current will flow back to the common terminal on the transformer from where the power system originated. It can go other places ahead of the transformer too if you should happen by chance to go there and that can get nasty.

Look at the whole thing like a car battery or something similar. Electricity flows only back to the source from which it came. It doesn't just hang around waiting for something else. It flows from and to the same source. And by the way, that's not the earth. It's a generator or something similar ultimately. It's called the "SEAT OF EMF" for THAT specific circuit. And like a car battery, run one wire from one car battery to another car's battery and nothing happens. The seat of EMF has to be the same one that energizes the same circuit that you are playing with.

-- Dimitris Tzortzakakis,Greece Visit our website-now with aircondition!

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That's right for a single-phase circuit.

The neutral is grounded (at least in Greece)so under zero potential.So you can't get shocked.

Not to the company's, but to your local transformer.The neutral is grounded every ten meters, here in greece, in every pole and installation.The transformer-substation for a neighbourhood is 20kV/380V delta/star.In USA it's (secondary distribution)-2500V/220-120V single phase, mostly for one or two houses.The primary distribution in USA and Europe is in the range of 20 kV.

-- Dimitris Tzortzakakis,Greece Visit our website-now with aircondition!

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other -- no neutral

as the wires are

flows through the load into

That's very unusual.

neutral wire. The earth is a

resistance. The reason the earth

also grounded to the earth at