On Monday, May 28, 2018 at 7:31:50 PM UTC-4, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 5/28/18 7:11 PM, Uncle Monster wrote:
On Monday, May 28, 2018 at 5:44:44 PM UTC-5, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 5/28/18 1:12 PM, Uncle Monster wrote:
On Monday, May 28, 2018 at 9:20:46 AM UTC-5, condo owner wrote:
I turned off ALL circuit breakers in the panel.
I then pulled out the duplex receptacle from the electrical box in my garage and removed the wires.
I then attached the black, white and ground wires to a new duplex receptacle with two USB ports.
I was shocked by another white electrical wire in the box. Why wasn't that circuit controlled by a circuit breaker in the panel? Should the white wire have power?
Sometimes two different energized circuits wind up sharing a neutral and that could be the reason you got a shock off the white neutral wire. o_O
[8~{} Uncle Zapped Monster
Always wondered- what exactly is a "neutral" wire in an AC circuit?
--
There is a lot of material about the subject on the Internet. Think of it as the return to the generator completing the circuit. The ground is attached to a ground rod which is in the ground, not the same thing. ^_^
http://qa.answers.com/Q/What_does_th...ical_cir cuit
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help...circuit-194475
https://community.smartthings.com/t/...angeable/27849
[8~{} Uncle Electrical Monster
Interesting, those are good explanations. Thanks.
But I understood that in AC, the current reverses back and forth through
the circuit 50-60 cycles per second.
If the neutral is a "return" wire, how does the "alternating" part fit in?
It's really a nomenclature thing. Think of it as a wire going to one
side of a power source, could be a battery for example. In the case of
AC wiring the neutral is also bonded to an earth ground. If you grab
hold of it, and grab hold of a water pipe, the potential difference
in an ideal world would be zero. In a non-ideal world, it's not zero,
but it's insignificant and won't shock you. In that way it's very
different from the hot side. Grab that while in contact with a water pipe,
earth and you will get shocked.