Neutral Wire & Earth: Electricity Distribution

[asad1111]

why during the the distribution of electricity to houses neutral wire is connected to Earth wire?

 

[Studiot]

why during the the distribution of electricity to houses neutral wire is connected to Earth wire?

Check again.

That would be illegal in UK.

In the US the power feed neutral is connected to a supply transformer primary, not to earth.
The local house neutral from the transformer secondary is earthed at the distribution board because the US practise needs is split phase and needs a stable cente zero.

 

[Evil Bunny]

In the US, the center tap (neutral) of the transformer (secondary) supplying your house is connected to a large conductor with a spike on the end that is driven into the ground. One of the two connections on the primary of this transformer (the "return") is also connected to this very same spike in the ground at the utility pole.

This neutral from the center tapped secondary is also connected to your service entrance (distribution board) at your house. Here again, it is also connected to a spike that is driven into the ground next to your house.

This is also the place where the "equipment grounding conductor" is connected with the neutral and the spike and driven into the ground.

Terminology is important here. What I just called the "equipment grounding conductor" is the technical term for this bare copper (or sometimes green insulated) wire in the US. This is more commonly referred to as "ground" or "the ground wire". From what I understand, this is called the "earth wire" in the UK.

These conversations always seem to get confused because of the different terminologies we use on opposite sides of the pond. :-)

 

[asad1111]

Check again.

That would be illegal in UK.

In the US the power feed neutral is connected to a supply transformer primary, not to earth.
The local house neutral from the transformer secondary is earthed at the distribution board because the US practise needs is split phase and needs a stable cente zero.

but we can have split phase by using just neutral why connect it with Earth or ground and how does connecting neutral to Earth make it stable

 

[asad1111]

In the US, the center tap (neutral) of the transformer (secondary) supplying your house is connected to a large conductor with a spike on the end that is driven into the ground. One of the two connections on the primary of this transformer (the "return") is also connected to this very same spike in the ground at the utility pole.

This neutral from the center tapped secondary is also connected to your service entrance (distribution board) at your house. Here again, it is also connected to a spike that is driven into the ground next to your house.

This is also the place where the "equipment grounding conductor" is connected with the neutral and the spike and driven into the ground.

Terminology is important here. What I just called the "equipment grounding conductor" is the technical term for this bare copper (or sometimes green insulated) wire in the US. This is more commonly referred to as "ground" or "the ground wire". From what I understand, this is called the "earth wire" in the UK.

These conversations always seem to get confused because of the different terminologies we use on opposite sides of the pond. :-)

thankyou for your thorough reply but i still don't understand why neutral is connected to ground or Earth because if they don't connect neutral eith Earth we will never get electric shock even if we hold live wire with our bare hands

 

[Studiot]

I will leave you and Evil Bunny to have a long discussion about US practice.

I repeat:

In the UK the neutral is not connected to ground.

Do not try the very unsafe experiment of grabbing hold of the line (it is not called live; both are actually 'live').
Whether you get a shock or not depends upon many factors, but not upon whether the neutral is earthed.

go well

 

[skeptic2]

thankyou for your thorough reply but i still don't understand why neutral is connected to ground or Earth because if they don't connect neutral eith Earth we will never get electric shock even if we hold live wire with our bare hands

Suppose you have an electrical system in which neither side is grounded as you suggest. With such a system there could be a failure of the insulation and one side of the line could contact ground. Since the other side is not grounded there would be no indication that anything is wrong. If sometime later another point on the same side of the line contacted ground, there still would be no indication of a problem. However if there were a fuse or circuit breaker between those two points, that circuit breaker would now be bypassed and the risk of an electrical fire is greatly increased.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Do not try the very unsafe experiment of grabbing hold of the line (it is not called live; both are actually 'live').

How refreshing to read someone using the correct term. I though I was the only person who still used 'line' - and then only in good company, to avoid confusion for the masses. School books all have it wrong. The term 'line' seems to be restricted to mid-level audio output signals these days.

 

[asad1111]

Suppose you have an electrical system in which neither side is grounded as you suggest. With such a system there could be a failure of the insulation and one side of the line could contact ground. Since the other side is not grounded there would be no indication that anything is wrong. If sometime later another point on the same side of the line contacted ground, there still would be no indication of a problem. However if there were a fuse or circuit breaker between those two points, that circuit breaker would now be bypassed and the risk of an electrical fire is greatly increased.

thank you for your reply so the basic reason of connecting the neutral wire to Earth is to find the electrical fault

 

[sophiecentaur]

thank you for your reply so the basic reason of connecting the neutral wire to Earth is to find the electrical fault

That is, in a funny sort of way, correct. The actual reason for having a neutral conductor is that you need to establish some degree of 'absolute potential' for your system (whether two or three phase). Without tying the live conductors, in some way, to a low potential wrt Earth, the whole system potential could drift to a very high value and deliver shocks. There wouldn't be a lot of charge available for these shocks because the charge would be limited by the Capacitance of the system but they would be unpleasant and sparks could cause fires etc.

With a totally floating ac system with two conductors it is possible to touch either conductor safely, because the other conductor would instantly assume the supply potential wrt Earth. A lot of equipment supplies are floating (connected to the mains via an isolating transformer) - and it is a very safe system -EXCEPT when one side becomes grounded and this is not detected and then someone else happens to touch the other leg (assuming that they are safe).

Any large network will have resistive paths to Earth and so you can never be sure that it totally floats - so you may as well tie one side to near-earth and then you know where you are.
In a three phase system, this is more obvious, I think. If the loading of a three phase system is equal on all three legs then very little (zero) current will actually flow in the neutral wire.

 

[skeptic2]

thank you for your reply so the basic reason of connecting the neutral wire to Earth is to find the electrical fault

The basic reason of connecting the neutral wire to Earth is to DETECT the electrical fault. There may be additional reasons.

 

[sophiecentaur]

There are many circumstances where a fault will not be detected. Only when there is enough current to blow a fuse will the mere grounding of the neutral "detect" a fault. (And that would never reveal a neutral-earth connection fault) The only way to detect a fault reliably is to use a residual current circuit breaker and that would work with or without a grounded neutral and it will spot a fault on either leg. Problem is that RCCBs are active devices and not actually fail-safe.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Only when there is enough current to blow a fuse will the mere grounding of the neutral "detect" a fault. (And that would never reveal a neutral-earth connection fault) The only way to detect a fault reliably is to use a residual current circuit breaker and that would work with or without a grounded neutral and it will spot a fault on either leg. Problem is that RCCBs are active devices and not actually fail-safe.

Concerning what I have put in bold, you cannot be serious. What is a RCCB? Here in the USA we have GFCIs in outlet form and circuit breaker form. They detect an imbalance of current between the hot and neutral. I assume this is what you mean. With a grounded neutral at the service panel, an accidental (partial or full) short from the neutral or hot to the ground in a portable power tool for instance plugged into a GFCI outlet WILL trip this outlet. In a system where the neutral is NOT grounded at the service panel the GFCI is less likely to trip since there is no return path back. The case of the tool as well as the user hanging onto it will be at whatever potential the case is shorted to. A GFCI should not require a grounded neutral at the service to detect the imbalance of current between hot and neutral, but where will the current path be if we don't take steps to make sure it is through the actual earth?
-
Almost forgot, I don't think I have ever seen a GFCI fail to open during a fault. It is more likely that they trip unnecessarily.

 

[Studiot]

Let's get a few things straight.

Single phase electrical feeds to a property are normally controlled by a single pole switch, which is in the line circuit.

So the line can be 'live' or disconnnected.

The neutral is permanantly 'live' with this system.

Now suppose someone was working on the wiring and had switched off the switch ie disconnected the line.

And further suppose that a line- neutral cross fault occurred upline.

The neutral would acquire the line voltage, a potentially lethal situation to anyone working on the wiring.

If, however the neutral was earthed a fault current would flow, causing disconnection and resulting in safety.

A further caveat.

Birds can sit on transmission lines because they can fly up there and are small enough not to touch anything else at the same time.

It is pure folly for a human, standing on the ground, to attempt to emulate this.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Now suppose someone was working on the wiring and had switched off the switch ie disconnected the line.

And further suppose that a line- neutral cross fault occurred upline.

The neutral would acquire the line voltage, a potentially lethal situation to anyone working on the wiring.

But this is the whole point of disagreement of which is better. When the ground we stand on is not connected to anything at all why would the live wire touching the neutral make it any more dangerous? What would is actually happening in your scenario is a short circuit up-line.

 

[Studiot]

But this is the whole point of disagreement of which is better. When the ground we stand on is not connected to anything at all why would the live wire touching the neutral make it any more dangerous? What would is actually happening in your scenario is a short circuit up-line.

What disagreement?

What is better?

 

[sophiecentaur]

@averagesupernova
RCCB is spelled out in the para you have quoted. I could ask what your acronym stands for, too.
Someone mentioned single pole switching. This is always a source of danger. Also, in a balanced system, fusing and switching can be problematical. Do you use double or single leg switching? Only one fuse will blow but this does not ensure isolation in a balanced system. Neutral fusing in a one sided system is even more deadly.

 

[lennybogzy]

Concerning what I have put in bold, you cannot be serious. What is a RCCB? Here in the USA we have GFCIs in outlet form and circuit breaker form. They detect an imbalance of current between the hot and neutral. I assume this is what you mean. With a grounded neutral at the service panel, an accidental (partial or full) short from the neutral or hot to the ground in a portable power tool for instance plugged into a GFCI outlet WILL trip this outlet. In a system where the neutral is NOT grounded at the service panel the GFCI is less likely to trip since there is no return path back. The case of the tool as well as the user hanging onto it will be at whatever potential the case is shorted to. A GFCI should not require a grounded neutral at the service to detect the imbalance of current between hot and neutral, but where will the current path be if we don't take steps to make sure it is through the actual earth?
-
Almost forgot, I don't think I have ever seen a GFCI fail to open during a fault. It is more likely that they trip unnecessarily.

What do you suppose is the ideal way to measure this leakage current of let's say that power tool, for instance.

 

[sophiecentaur]

The standard way is to use a transformer with three windings. Two are put in series with each of the supply legs, connected in antiphase so as to cancel. When the load is balanced, there is no flux in the transformer so no volts on the third winding. Any imbalance (difference) in the two currents will result in a voltage on this winding. This is used to operate a trip switch. These devices can easily detect 10mA of leakage to Earth, giving good biological protection.

 

[Evil Bunny]

But this is the whole point of disagreement of which is better. When the ground we stand on is not connected to anything at all why would the live wire touching the neutral make it any more dangerous? What would is actually happening in your scenario is a short circuit up-line.

What disagreement?

What is better?

Without getting into anything about what is "better" and what isn't... Studiot's example didn't lay out anything dangerous as far as I can tell... the short circuit he describes would create tremendous current but not where the hypothetical person was working on the wires... this would be upstream somewhere.

As far as I can tell anyway... perhaps I've misunderstood something (it certainly wouldn't be the first time). Maybe another one of your sketches is in order?

 

[skeptic2]

The standard way is to use a transformer with three windings. Two are put in series with each of the supply legs, connected in antiphase so as to cancel. When the load is balanced, there is no flux in the transformer so no volts on the third winding. Any imbalance (difference) in the two currents will result in a voltage on this winding. This is used to operate a trip switch. These devices can easily detect 10mA of leakage to Earth, giving good biological protection.

I think it is somewhat simpler than that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual-current_device

 

[Averagesupernova]

This whole thread doesn't seem to be aimed at any place specific. It has appeared to me that there is a discussion going about grounding the neutal as done in the USA vs not grounding which is done across the pond. Someone here disagrees with me on that. I've laid out my case explaining what the purpose of a GFCI is and overlooked explaining the acronym which should not make a bit of difference in showing how it will behave in both systems. For the record GFCI is Ground Fault Circuit Interuptor. It always seems that when folks on here get into a discussion about mains power the misinformation just flows and flows and flows.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Sophie, in the USA we never switch the neutral no matter what. I think part of this reason comes from not wanting any extra resistance in the neutral wire as this causes voltage imbalance. It is my opinion that this is safer. Suppose we switch both the hot and the neutral but for some reason there is a failure that only switches the neutral. The obvious effect is the same. The circuit appears to go dead but is not since the hot wire did not get switched and some unsuspecting person will find out the hard way.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Do you not use double pole isolators? That is surprising.

 

[lennybogzy]

The standard way is to use a transformer with three windings. Two are put in series with each of the supply legs, connected in antiphase so as to cancel. When the load is balanced, there is no flux in the transformer so no volts on the third winding. Any imbalance (difference) in the two currents will result in a voltage on this winding. This is used to operate a trip switch. These devices can easily detect 10mA of leakage to Earth, giving good biological protection.

Why not measure the ground current with an ammeter? Assuming the device is isolated from ground.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Where would you put the ammeter?

 

[Averagesupernova]

Not sure what you mean by double pole isolator. The neutral all the way from the center tap of the transformer is NEVER EVER EVER under ANY circumstance interuptable in any way. We have double pole circuit breakers for our appliances that run on 240 volts. Supposing we have an electric heat panel that runs off of 240 volts. Each end of the secondary transformer winding would be hooked to the heater. Of course there is a double pole circuit breaker in between. If there is a fault on one line between the breaker and heater causing excessive current to flow on only one line, the double pole breaker will open both lines. But if the heater were running on 120 volts using the neutral wire it would only use a single pole breaker. The neutral is NEVER opened.

 

[lennybogzy]

Where would you put the ammeter?

well, in series with earth

 

[uart]

well, in series with earth

The problem with Earth faults is that you don't know exactly what path they will travel as there are almost always multiple ground paths. Whether you choose to call them GFCI's or RCCB's or RCD's (residual current devices) or my favorite ELCB's (earth leakage circuit breakers) it's all the same, they all work on detecting a current difference between the live and neutral wires as Sophie previously described.

 

[lennybogzy]

The problem with Earth faults is that you don't know exactly what path they will travel as there are almost always multiple paths. Whether you choose to call them GFCI's or RCCB's or RCD's (residual current device) or my favorite ELCB (earth leakage circuit breaker), they all work on detecting a current difference between the live and neutral wires as Sophie previously described.

i understand that's how RCDs, GFCI's etc work and that's obviously the right way for that reason. What I'm saying is that if you want to measure the amount of leakage your device inherently has, it should be sufficient to measure Earth current (provided that the *device is isolated from ground* which eliminates all other paths that you are talking about) because Earth current should theoretically be equal to the diff between line current and neutral current.

Shouldnt it?

 

[skeptic2]

Suppose neither line is grounded. As wire insulation ages it may crack or become worn and allow a small amount of current to flow to ground. If hundreds of homes are connected to the same transformer there could be appreciable current flowing to ground even if all the lines have fuses or circuit breakers.

Someone who knows that both lines are floating, confidently if naively, sits in a bathtub full of water using a hair dryer. As the hair dryer gets wet, a small amount of current may pass from one line in the hair dryer through the person's body to ground where due to the leakage current from many other homes, the current finds a path back to the other line. Where would you put the ammeter in series with ground to prevent such an occurrence?

 

[lennybogzy]

Suppose neither line is grounded. As wire insulation ages it may crack or become worn and allow a small amount of current to flow to ground. If hundreds of homes are connected to the same transformer there could be appreciable current flowing to ground even if all the lines have fuses or circuit breakers.

Someone who knows that both lines are floating, confidently if naively, sits in a bathtub full of water using a hair dryer. As the hair dryer gets wet, a small amount of current may pass from one line in the hair dryer through the person's body to ground where due to the leakage current from many other homes, the current finds a path back to the other line. Where would you put the ammeter in series with ground to prevent such an occurrence?

i feel like I am being misunderstood. Forgetting hypotheticals and taking one specific example. I have a lamp, plug it into a wall and float it from the middle of a ceiling. Can I determine the leakage of the lamp (diff between line and neutral) by measuring Earth current?

 

[Studiot]

This thread has wandered rather off topic.

Further some less than wholly accurate statements have been made.

I hope no electrician would recommend making an earthing connection through an ammeter. The object of any earthing connection is to make the resistance as small as practicable.

There is a fundamental difference between American and British practice in that the american wiring system makes two distinct uses of the Earth or Ground wire, whilst the British system makes only a single use. The Canadian system is different again.

The British system is simpler, so I will deal with it first.

Domestic single phase supply is taken from the phase to neutral voltage of a three phase supply cable, belonging to the supply company. It has a nominal 230 volts AC. There is no transformer.

Both these conductors (they are not called wires) are considered 'live'.
The neutral is actually earthed by the power company upline somewhere, perhaps at the power station, perhaps at a substation.
In most circumstances the company also supplies a third conductor called officially called the 'protective conductor' otherwise known as the 'earth'.
The company also connects this to Earth so that the consumer does not need to do so.

I stress again

The sole purpose of the protective conductor is to provide - yes- protection. Protection against, gas explosion, electric shock, fire hazard.
It is not used as a current return conductor or for protection of connected apparatus.
It is not connected by the consumer to the neutral.

One use of the ground connection in American practice in the protection mode as above.

It is also used (wisely) as a reference in the event of certain faults that cannot occur in the British system.

However American supply is different. The phase and return conductors from the power company are connected to a transformer which outputs two opposite phase line connectors and a centre tap neutral to the consumer.

The voltages are such that conventional lower powered apparatus is supplied between one or other line and the centre tapped 'neutral' at 120 volts AC.
Higher powered apparatus is connected between the two lines at 240 volts AC.

This centre tap is grounded because in the event of a fault (such as a shorted turn) causing the centre tap to shift from the mid voltage the centre tap is pegged to ground. Thus the line to ground voltage can never rise above 120 volts. If the centre tap were not grounded a condition could arise where the centre to one line voltage was 130 , 140, 160 or whatever.
This would clearly offer danger via and to apparatus connected to that circuit.

Averagesupernova, I still don't see any argument.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Here in the USA we commonly have 200 amp 240 volt residential services. What size do you have in the UK? You say there is no transformer. Just how far away is it from the residence to the first transformer? And fine, no argument, whatever...

 

[lennybogzy]

Averagesupernova you win

 

[Averagesupernova]

Lenny, I'm just curious about the practices in the UK.

 

[lennybogzy]

That's why you win

 

[Studiot]

Here in the USA we commonly have 200 amp 240 volt residential services. What size do you have in the UK? You say there is no transformer. Just how far away is it from the residence to the first transformer?

Most average properties would go for a 100 amp supply, single phase 230 volts.

If you wanted more you would probably use 3 phase and maybe the interphase voltage (415).

Distribution is by 3 phase supply cables, so part of a street might be on one phase and part on another and the streeet lights on the third.

Even in a town you could be half a mile or more from the local substation transformer (this would be a 3 phase industrial quality jobby )

It is decades since supplies went underground. Very few are now supplied from overhead cables.
This is the reason it is so easy for the supplier to provide the local earth. The supply cable armoured sheath is well buried locally, unlike an overhead cable.

Building wiring make great use of 'diversity' and ring main wiring for power, rather than star wiring as in the US.
Lighting wiring is also different, being distributed daisy chain wise via special ceiling roses rather than via light switches.

What else would you like to know?

 

[Averagesupernova]

It seems to me that a half mile is a LONG way to run what we call in the USA secondary wire. Meaning that the 240 VAC wires between the transformer and the service panel in your house are called secondary wires.
-
I looked at buying some property here that would have had a driveway about 750 feet long. The transformer was on a pole at the end of the driveway next to the public road. The house that had been there (gone when I looked at) had a 100 amp service. I called the power company and asked them about this. I told them what I had in mind and that it required a 200 amp service. I don't recall whether the wires from the transformer to the meter were large enough to carry it but even if they were the engineer from the power company said that is too far of a run for secondary wiring. In fact he thought it was quite a distance even for a 100 amp service. The central air unit alone would cause too much voltage sag on this distance upon startup. A better approach would be to relocate the transformer. I had decided this before I even called.

 

[sophiecentaur]

well, in series with earth

And where would that actually fit in the curcuit? try drawing it out and there isn't anywhere to put a meter / detector. The only way is to detect a difference in the current in the two legs. It would work (and the old Earth leakage trip system used to work this way) for detecting current flowing in the actual Earth wire but current through you to the wet bathroom floor wouldn't't necessarily go through the mains Earth wire.

 

[I_am_learning]

If the centre tap were not grounded a condition could arise where the centre to one line voltage was 130 , 140, 160 or whatever.

Can you please elaborate on how that could occur?

 

[Studiot]

AS, you are not understanding.

It is a statutory requirement for the power company to deliver 230volts (within tolerances) to the supplier/consumer interface at the property meter.

The capacity of the three phase supply running past not only one property but the perhaps hundreds in that road, has to be sufficient to supply all the property spurs.

Yes the consumer may suffer voltage drop if his own wiring runs are too long - there are standard formulae to determine this.

You effectively stated this by saying 'relocate the transformer' ie it is the power companies responsibility to size the feed cable/voltage to the transformer primary to achieve the desired secondary output.

IAL,

Take a transformer with a centre tap.
The voltages between each end and the centre are equal in magnitude (and of opposite phase)
Now short out one or more turns.

The voltage between one end of the transformer and the tap is now different from the voltage between the other end and the tap, as it is no longer exactly half way along the winding.

Or, as I said, the tap has shifted its voltage position from the centre.

Although the end to end voltage will have reduced it is now unevenly distributed betwen the two outputs so the bigger 'half' will be greater than 120.

go well

 

[sophiecentaur]

Can you please elaborate on how that could occur?

1. If one leg became connected, by a a leakage path - or even a dead short - to Earth then the other leg would assume the full 220V.
2. If the system were fully isolated from Earth then a static charge could build up and raise the DC potential to any level. The capacity of the whole line, from transformer to consumer - plus all the connected devices - could be high enough to collect a lethal charge.

 

[I_am_learning]

AS, you are not understanding.

It is a statutory requirement for the power company to deliver 230volts (within tolerances) to the supplier/consumer interface at the property meter.

The capacity of the three phase supply running past not only one property but the perhaps hundreds in that road, has to be sufficient to supply all the property spurs.

Yes the consumer may suffer voltage drop if his own wiring runs are too long - there are standard formulae to determine this.

You effectively stated this by saying 'relocate the transformer' ie it is the power companies responsibility to size the feed cable/voltage to the transformer primary to achieve the desired secondary output.

IAL,

Take a transformer with a centre tap.
The voltages between each end and the centre are equal in magnitude (and of opposite phase)
Now short out one or more turns.

The voltage between one end of the transformer and the tap is now different from the voltage between the other end and the tap, as it is no longer exactly half way along the winding.

Or, as I said, the tap has shifted its voltage position from the centre.

Although the end to end voltage will have reduced it is now unevenly distributed betwen the two outputs so the bigger 'half' will be greater than 120.

go well

I am still unclear here. Suppose the transformer is 11KV/240V (with center taps).
So, suppose, the primary has 11000 turns and the secondary has 240 turns with tapping from 110 turns.e
Now, I think, the voltage induced per turn in the secondary is 1volt per turn.
So, no matter what happens to the other half of the turn, the voltage induced across the healthy half of 120 turns should still 120 Volts.
Because the voltage induced still equals E = N d(phi)/dt. So, still, the 120 turns can't have more than 120 volt induced in it.

Please tell me where I am wrong.

O.K. I will show you my math.
Suppose, out of 120 turns of the one half of the secondary, 80 turns gets shorted out. Now, there would be un-equal voltages on each half. But still Isn't it crystal clear that, the faulty half would have 120-80 = 40V induced and the healthy half would have still 120 Volt induced.

 

[Studiot]

Good call IAL, I think you are right.

 

[I_am_learning]

Its a pleasure to hear that from you. :)
so, that leaves the only reason for grounding the central tap is to prevent exceptional voltage rise w.r.t. ground due to static charge build up as sophiecentaur pointed out.

 

[I_am_learning]

At the risk of creating safety concern, I would Like to ask, In British System Or in American System, Is it safe to touch the neutral conductor standing on ground.
Since, you said, the neutral is grounded on the distribution transformer, it means we are already standing on neutral conductor. So, it appears that it must be safe to touch it because we are already touching it anyway.

I am not going to touch it, though, and please, Nobody do that, because you never know what's going on.

P.S. What is the best way to discuss in this topic. Last time I tried to be very careful, but missed somewhere and got the thread locked.

 

[Studiot]

Is it safe to touch the neutral conductor standing on ground.

Usually you would be OK, particularly in the american system.

Usually there is some voltage between the neutral and Earth in the british system, but not enough to hurt.

But why take a risk on there being a fault condition?

Further there is a definite danger in the british system of unwittingly grabbing the wrong wire.
This is because the wiring colour for neutral is also used for line voltage in certain circumstances (light switches).
So a wire carrying the neutral colour will be either at line voltage or disconnected if part of the light switch circuit.

 

[I_am_learning]

O.K. Thanks.
That clears up much of my confusion.
When you are asserting that the neutral isn't grounded in post #6, you meant it isn't grounded on the consumer side. right?
Now, one more question. :)
In our house (Lets talk about British System for now), we usually have 3 wire, the line, the neutral and the ground. We connect power equipments between neutral and the line, and connect the body of the equipment to the ground wire. Obviously, the ground wire is connected to earth, locally at our house through some earthing arrangements (like a sheet of Copper Plate buried in Salt and Clay). So, the Ground Wire is in effect actually connected to the neutral wire through the earth, as the neutral is also connected to the Earth (at the transformer).

The purpose of providing the ground wire and connecting it to the equipment body is for protection of personnel. i.e. If some-how the line comes in contact to equipment body then, since the body is already connected to ground wire-to-earth-to-neutral heavy current flows and trips the MCB.

All these makes sense. One thing which don't make much sense is "Why don't we connect the neutral itself to the equipment body and totally eliminate the use of ground wire?"

More questions may come. :)

 

[sophiecentaur]

AS,

Take a transformer with a centre tap.
The voltages between each end and the centre are equal in magnitude (and of opposite phase)
Now short out one or more turns.

I'm sure you don't mean "short out one or more turns". That would lead to a lot of current flowing in those shorted turns and would either burn out the transformer or get it very hot and waste a lot of energy. Far better to subtract some turns from the end of one secondary ('tap down', as they say).