Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Thanks,
Bob

"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Thanks,
Bob



It is a grounded conductor commonly called the neutral. The wire that
connects to your water pipe and ground rods is called a grounding conductor
or more specifically a grounding electrode conductor.

It is a neutral, which is grounded by the utility company on their end and
grounded by the customer on their end



"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Thanks,
Bob

"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Thanks,
Bob

It is a neutral and caries the difference in current back from the 2 hot
legs.
If you have a 100 amp service and one leg is at 60 amp and the other is at
40 amp then the neutral is 20 amps. If both legs are equal the current in
the neutral cancels out to 0 amps etc.

The 2 legs are not really 2 phases but rather 2 poles that are derived, by a
center tapped transformer, from ONE the 3 phases that come from the power
generation plant. The center tap being the neutral and grounded so it is at
a 0V reference.

Kevin

According to Robert11 :
Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Neither. John Grabowski's response is correct, but I thought I'd
amplify.

The technically correct term for the "neutral" in the house wiring, and the "non-hot" wire
that comes from the street is "grounded conductor" - the conductor is groundED (at the
panel).

The technically correct term for the bare wire in house wiring is "grounding conductor"
it provides the groundING for a circuit.

Pedantically speaking, the term "neutral" can only be applied to the center conductor
on a multi-phase circuit (eg: three phase).

However, through common usage in the trade and elsewhere, "neutral" has come
to be synonymous with "grounded conductor" and "ground"/"ground wire" synonymous for
"grounding conductor".

You'll occasionally see people use the "more-correct" terms here - usually confuses
people. You'll impress the inspector if you use them ;-)
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Black wire
Neutral, Negative, -, Ground
(This is the basically the negative end of the circuit)

White wire
Positive, Hot, +
(This is basically the Positive end of the circuit, and is the one that
comes from the breakers)

No insulation or green insulation
Ground, Case Ground
(This is there to give the hot wire something easy to touch so that it
will blow a breaker instead of laying there like a trap waiting for you
to touch it, and is electrically the same as the Black Wire when you
test it with your meter.)


Be sure that all your plugs are wired the same or you can get shocked
by touching two cases at the same time that are plugged into two
different plugs.

According to CanopyCo :
Black wire
Neutral, Negative, -, Ground
(This is the basically the negative end of the circuit)

White wire
Positive, Hot, +
(This is basically the Positive end of the circuit, and is the one that
comes from the breakers)

You have your colour codes precisely backwards. Black is hot. White
is neutral.

In AC housewiring, "negative", "-", "positive" and "+" are simply wrong.
It's AC, remember?
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Robert11 wrote:
Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Thanks,
Bob




IMHO, it is a grounded [service] conductor. Notice the -ed suffix; it
is important. I put service in brackets because you can usually leave
that word out.

Bob

Robert11 wrote:
Hello,

Just want to get the terminology correct.

Understand the differences between the Ground and the neutral in house
wiring O.K., but for
the bare wire that comes in from the street (along with the two phases) to
the house service panel:

is this correctly called a Ground wire or a Neutral wire ?

Thanks,
Bob



There are hundreds of web sites that discuss this subject.
For example:

http://www.electrical-online.com/how.../Grounding.htm

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/e...er/install.htm

On 22 Feb 2006 07:13:19 -0800, "CanopyCo" wrote:

Black wire
Neutral, Negative, -, Ground
(This is the basically the negative end of the circuit)

White wire
Positive, Hot, +
(This is basically the Positive end of the circuit, and is the one that
comes from the breakers)


Believe that at your own risk. Black is hot. Maybe you're getting it
confused with DC (as in a car).

No insulation or green insulation
Ground, Case Ground
(This is there to give the hot wire something easy to touch so that it
will blow a breaker instead of laying there like a trap waiting for you
to touch it, and is electrically the same as the Black Wire when you
test it with your meter.)


Be sure that all your plugs are wired the same or you can get shocked
by touching two cases at the same time that are plugged into two
different plugs.

That is, black wire (hot) to the shorter slot and white wire (neutral)
to the longer slot.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin