The hot is fused to prevent a ground short from burning out the appliance and is the reason that a grounded neutral or reverse-polarized electrical plug can be dangerous. Fusing the neutral would not prevent this, which is exactly why the breaker tripped instead of the fuse blowing.
Do you ever fuse a neutral wire?
A single fuse in the phase conductor provides protection for both kinds of faults. A single fuse in the neutral conductor provides protection for neutral-to-phase faults, but not for phase-to-ground faults. This is one reason why a single fuse in the neutral is not permitted.
Why is it unsafe to use a neutral wire to a fuse?
If it is connected to neutral wire, the fuse will melt when excess current flow, but the appliance will still be connected to high potential through live wire. Thus, if a person touches the appliance, he receives shock.
Why fuse is never used in neutral link?
Because the fuse can disconnect the circuit only when the excess current flows completely through the neutral. But, a circuit can complete or obtain a conduction pathway either by the neutral or earth. So, if any electric shock or earth leakage occurs, the current flows from the phase line to earth.
Why is the fuse in an appliance always on the live side of the appliance?
The fuse or circuit breaker must be connected in the live wire side of a domestic circuit to ensure that it keeps high voltage from reaching the user, or surroundings, if a fault develops.
Does neutral wire have power?
To summarize: the hot wire carries electricity from the power supply and takes it to the load (lightbulb). Neutral wires take the used electricity from the load and bring it back to the power supply.
Why is a switch not placed in the neutral wire?
If the switch or fuse is placed in the neutral wire, the electrical appliance is still connected to the high voltage live wire even when the switch is open, or the fuse is blown. This could cause the user to get an electric shock if they touched the inside of the appliance.
What happens if neutral wire is connected to fuse?
If fuse wire is connected to neutral wire instead of live wire then even when the fuse burns out the appliance remains connected to the live wire and the current supplied will not be disrupted due to overloading.
When can a neutral wire shock you?
Some voltage between earth and neutral(at a high potential) can give you a shock. For instance when I take voltage reading across neutral and earth at my home plug point I get reading between 5-10V. If this becomes high of about 50V or more and you touch neutral you will get a shock.
Why is fuse only connected to live wire?
A fuse is always connected to the live wire to break the circuit preventing the connected devices from damage. A fuse is a circuit element made of high resistance material that melts when there is overloading in the circuit.
Why are fuses always in the live wire?
A fuse is a circuit element made of highly resistance material such that melts when there is overloading in the circuit. It is always connected in the live wire as to break the circuit preventing the connected devices from damage.
Why the switch should always be connected to the live wire?
The switch must be placed in live wire to maintain the body of appliance at zero potential in the switch off position and if the switch is kept in neutral wire, then the body of the appliance to keep the body at infinite potential in the switch on position.
Does a neutral wire carry voltage?
Voltage is carried by the live conductor, but a neutral conductor is also necessary for two important functions: Serving as a zero voltage reference point.
Is there voltage on the neutral?
The neutral wire is often said to have zero voltage on it. If you touch that wire on a live system, however, you will often find out very quickly that technically having zero voltage is very different from meaning there is no electricity present.
What would cause a neutral wire to have voltage?
When the wire length from the breaker panel to the service outlet is long and the connected equipment is pulling a large amount of current, the resistance in the wire will cause a voltage drop along the NEUTRAL wire.
What happens if hot wire touches neutral?
A short circuit happens when a “hot” wire (black) touches another hot wire or touches a “neutral” wire (white) in one of your outlets. When these two wires touch, a large amount of current flows, creating more heat than the circuit can handle, so it shuts off.
Should there be continuity between hot and neutral?
If you are testing from one of the phase wires on the load side of the main breaker with it off to the neutral you will get a reading if any of the branch circuit breakers are on and connected to loads. Turn off all of the breakers and check again it should read no continuity. It’s a new house.
How do you diagnose a bad neutral wire?
To test a bad neutral simply test the known hot to a good ground. Hot to ground should return nominal voltage ~ 110 – 125 Volts and hot to neutral would read something irregular. In the case the ground is either bad or missing simply run a drop cord from a working properly grounded outlet and test hot to ground.
Should the neutral wire be hot?
Look for a disconnected neutral. To test whether you have a broken neutral, turn off everything in the circuit which has the hot neutral. If the neutral is then no longer hot, this confirms that a neutral is disconnected in the circuit.
Why do I have 120 volts on my neutral?
If you have a neutral wire removed from the neutral bus bar in your panel it is possible to see 120VAC on that wire if the circuit breaker for that circuit is turned on and there is a load connected to the circuit and load device is also turned on.
