Just what is the "neutral" wire and what does it do?

--
If a man speaks in the woods and there is no woman around to hear him,
is he still wrong?

On 6/3/2017 10:45 AM, Earl Grey wrote:
Just what is the "neutral" wire and what does it do?



It carries the power back to the source on a two or three wire system.
It is NOT a ground

On Sat, 3 Jun 2017 10:45:10 -0400, Earl Grey
wrote:

Just what is the "neutral" wire and what does it do?

In your typical center tapped 120/240v system it carries the
unbalanced current back to the transformer. In the 120v circuits that
is equal to the ungrounded (hot) conductor current. In a 120/240
circuit (AKA multiwire or Edison) it truly does carry the unbalanced
current.
The fact that it is grounded is just for safety, to stabilize the
voltage of the service to ground but the ground should not enter into
the current equation.
This is what your typical service looks like
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/home%20service.jpg

In reality the grounding system will still carry a little current
because of the voltage drop in the service drop and MV distribution.
At my house the ground is carrying a couple amps most of the time and
every ground on every utility pole is carrying some current.

Main MV distribution pole with all 3 phases present
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/dist...20braodway.jpg

First pole on a single phase MV (13.5 kv) distribution string with a
transformer.
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/first_xfmr.jpg
..

On Sat, 3 Jun 2017 11:13:53 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 6/3/2017 10:45 AM, Earl Grey wrote:
Just what is the "neutral" wire and what does it do?



It carries the power back to the source on a two or three wire system.
It is NOT a ground
Although it USUALLY is at ground potential.

Earl Grey posted for all of us...



Just what is the "neutral" wire and what does it do?

DAGS - but I see Greg Fretwell did all your work for you.

--
Tekkie