[Gllug] OT: Mains electricity colour coding.

[general_email at technicalbloke.com]

On 24/10/10 19:44, Richard Jones wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 06:58:44PM +0100, general_email at technicalbloke.com wrote:
>    
>> For time immemorial I have been told brown is live, blue is neutral and
>> yellow/green is earth. Mains electricity is AC so it oscillates between
>> the positive and negative 50 times a second right? In that case why does
>> it matter which way you wire the blue and brown cables to the nominally
>> blue and brown terminals in a plug? I always assumed you could
>> electrocute yourself equally well by touching the blue terminal, maybe
>> even better as the brown's got a fuse that might protect you!
>>      
> As another reply said, neutral is wired to earth, although not as
> close to your house as the real earth so it could still be dangerous.
> The real earth should be wired to your pipework and to an earth rod
> directly under your house (at least, it is in my house ...)
>
> Wikipedia has some interesting articles around this subject:
>
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ground_and_neutral
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ground_%28electricity%29
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Electricity_distribution
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Single_wire_earth_return
>
> Rich.
>
>    


Thanks for all the interesting replies everyone :)

Roger.
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