Lobster wrote:
KHBlue wrote:

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
I'm in the middle of wiring up a cable for an electrical hook up to
be used while camping in France. I have a French 3-pin plug bought
there on a previous visit, but in opening it up I find there's
absolutely no indication which of the two power pins is live and
neutral. Doesn't it matter?

I will be using the cable with an RCD device; won't that object and
trip out if the wiring's the wrong way round? Or is it a case of
"suck it and see" when I get to France, and if it's wrong, reverse
the wiring?

You can get the proper adaptor from a caravan shop or Towsure, but be
careful some sites in France use the same blue plug as our sites, I
have 3 different adapters - two with the French plugs, one with
reversed polarity and the other as normal then I also have a short
lead of male and female blue plugs with the polarity reversed because
'yes' I have come across that aswell! Its also useful having a blue
plug with a uk three pin socket on the end so you can plug a tester in
to test for correct polarity or earth faults before using the correct
adaptor to hook up.

Thanks for that. What a palaver! Yes, I already have a conventional
UK-style cable with blue plug; what I'm actually wiring today is a short
adapter, ie with a blue socket to a French plug.

Hmm, a plug-in tester sounds a good idea, now. However, I'm not going
to have time to sort out further hardware as I leave for France tomorrow
- so in the meantime can you or anyone else confirm what happens if I
plug in the cable with accidentally reversed polarity? Will it just
trip the RCD device, so I can just rewire the plug? If not, what will
be the effect of getting it wrong... electrical items to be used include
a fridge, laptop, phone chargers...

Thanks
David
RCD devices only look for a difference in the current flowing in the two
connections. It has nothing to do with earth. You may however find that
the test button does not work if L & N are reversed as I think all this
does is to connect a resistor between the live and earth. This might
only provide enough trip current if the live is truly live.

Bob