Table of Contents
- 1 What happens if earth wire is connected to live wire?
- 2 What happens if there is an earth wire and the live touches the metal casing?
- 3 What happens if an earth and neutral wires are switched?
- 4 How the earth pin is connected in the appliances?
- 5 Why is the earth pin made thicker in sockets?
- 6 What is the difference between earth pin and live pin?
What happens if earth wire is connected to live wire?
As the wire is made of copper, the earth wire provides a low resistance path to the ground. In the event of a fault, the large live current passing through the case earth wire will follow this path to the ground instead of passing through a person, and will blow the fuse rendering the appliance safe.
What happens if there is an earth wire and the live touches the metal casing?
If the live wire touches the metal casing accidentally, current will flow through the casing and the user touching the casing will get an electrical shock. The earth wire has a resistance much lower than the human body. This will allow the current to flow through it to the ground instead of through the user’s body.
What happens if an earth and neutral wires are switched?
To answer your original question, if ground and neutral are swapped, when the light is energized (on) you will have electrified your entire house ground as the return path to the main panel. This is bad and dangerous.
Does the earth wire need to be connected?
The “ground” wire is for protection in case of a short circuit of the “phase” (hot) wire to the lamp metallic frame, it will protect you from receiving an electrical shock when touching that frame. It should be connected, but the “no connection” will not interfere in the lamp to go on/off.
How does the earth wire protect us?
Earthing is used to protect you from an electric shock. It does this by providing a path (a protective conductor) for a fault current to flow to earth. It also causes the protective device (either a circuit-breaker or fuse) to switch off the electric current to the circuit that has the fault.
How the earth pin is connected in the appliances?
How the Earth pin is connected in the appliances: In a 3-pin plug, the wire that is connected to the ground pin of a plug is also connected to the metal body of the equipment. If any current leakage is appearing on the metal body of the equipment then, it must be discharged safely to ground.
Why is the earth pin made thicker in sockets?
Hence, the earth pin is made thicker so that there is no chance for it to be inserted into the live or neutral hole of the socket. This also prevents earth pin from establishing an electrical contact with the live terminal.
What is the difference between earth pin and live pin?
The earth pin is made thicker so that even by mistake, it cannot be inserted into the live or a neutral hole. The smaller pins on the plug, the live and neutral pins can go into the larger hole, but the larger pin will never go into a smaller hole and any live wire cannot be connected to the body of the equipment.
What is an earthearth wire?
Earth: A safety wire which carries the same electricity as LIVE if something goes wrong, taking it to the ground. Earth is bare inside the CABLE and, when fixing, a green and yellow sheath is slipped over the end.