Wiring shore power plug

[petie]

I am attempting to fit a Hubbbell power plug to my shore power lead and whilst I understand the instructions referring to the green and yellow connection, they also refer to 1, the grounded circuit conductor and 2, the ungrounded circuit conductor. How do these instructions relate to the blue and brown wires on the lead?

 

[rbmitchell]

In the US, black is the hot wire, white is neutral and green is ground on the 120 volt ac side. The only yellow is on the 12 volt dc side. In the UK, I believe the blue and brown are the ac wires which are equal to the black/white wire in the US. At least that is what I have found when chopping up prewired devices from European sources.

 

[PilotWolf]

My understanding is by grounded and ungrounded they mean live and neutral respectively.

Brown being live and blue being neutral.

Depending on your supply type the neutral is usually connected to earth (somewhere).

W.

 

[VicS]

As Pilot wolf says.
The grounded conductor is what we usually call the "neutral" (grounded because that is the one earthed at the substation) and blue colour coded one.

The ungrounded conductor is the one we normally call the "live" and is brown colour coded.

(Even our live and neutral descriptions are now out of date. I believe the current terminology is "phase" and "return")

 

[markdj]

Neutral should never be connected to earth as this is very dangerous and could result in electrocution if the supply wires are reversed. We were in Holyhead marina a few years ago and one of the boxes was putting out live 240 on the neutral.

UK Brown = US Black = AC live supply.
UK Blue = US White = AC neutral.
UK yellow/green = US Green = Earth.

 

[PilotWolf]

[ QUOTE ]
Neutral should never be connected to earth as this is very dangerous and could result in electrocution if the supply wires are reversed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never said it should be!

As confirmed by VicS the neutral of the supply is connected to earth by the supplier. Best definition to explain I can find is from Siemens:

It is now common practice to improve the earth/neutral bond by creating multiple connections throughout the supply network. This is known as protective multiple earthing (PME).
When a fault current arises from phase-to-earth or phase-to-neutral, a low resistance "fault loop impedance" will cause sufficient over current to flow, to melt a fuse or trip a circuit breaker (i.e. disconnect the supply).
Note: For the purposes of this explanation the term "impedance" is synonymous with "electrical resistance".
Interconnection of earth and neutral paths provides the lowest possible fault impedance. The consequence of a PME connection is that both fault and load current are shared between earth and neutral in proportion to their respective resistances. As the proportionate share of this current is an unknown factor, interconnection of earth and neutral is only permitted on the supply authority's system. It is dangerous and contrary to the Electrical Supply Regulations to make any earth/neutral connection within a consumer's installation.

W.

 

[Bilgediver]

My understanding is by grounded and ungrounded they mean live and neutral respectively.

******************************************************
You just died a horrible death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unless your RCD kicked in.


TRY THE OTHER WAY ROUND

 

[petie]

Totally confused now. Has not bilgediver got it the wrong way round?

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
Totally confused now

[/ QUOTE ] Not surprised.

It's Pilot wolf who has it the wrong way round, at least in his opening sentence.

Live = ungrounded, Neutral = grounded.

Dunno why I did not notice that. Half asleep earlier!

 

[petie]

Sorry Bilgediver. Did not appreciate that you were responding to an opposite point of view. Surely Brown-Live -Ungrounded. Blue- Neutral-Grounded

 

[PilotWolf]

Yep I'll own up to that one! Too early and not sufficient tea intake

Unfortunately the stupid software doesn't allow me to edit or delete the post.


W.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
stupid software doesn't allow me to edit or delete the post

[/ QUOTE ] Normal for forum soft ware to impose a limit. Some dont I know but some are even shorter than this one. 2 hours here I think.

Most annoying are those that don't let you back in immediately to correct an error you notice.

 

[PilotWolf]

Yeah, unfortunately even having read my post again I still hadn't noticed the error.

Editing is reasonable I guess but the option to delete is in most if not all of the other forums I use.

W.