Quote:
Originally posted by XFS03
If you're in the electrical installation trade, why don't you give Xaccers a definitive answer. He is making a valid point...if the mains is ac, why should it matter if the pins are reversed?
Also why laugh at his comment about many appliances not using the earth pin?
|
Ok, Lets start from the top
Mains is AC, however if you were to make contact with the neutral line, it is unlikely you would receive a major shock as this is not the line which hauls current, the current comes through the live wire, this is why the fusebox carries all the fuses on the live, not the neutral, In the appliance itself there is normally another fuse, again on the live, not the neutral. This is in case of a fault which connects the live feed to any conductive surfaces.
Secondly, the earth pin
Metal appliances normally use an earth in case something goes wrong which would result in a live wire contacting the body of the appliance, these use all 3 pins on the plug, this does not apply if the appliance is "double insulated"
Appliances which are double insulated normally only carry 2 wires, live and neutral, as the earth is not needed. Hence most power adapters have a plastic earth pin which only opens the gate on the power socket.
Incidentally Xaccers, in the UK we only get a single phase into the house delivering 240V