leitmotif
Member
Maddy
In many cases it does not matter electrically which way you connect the two wires. examples
1. Incandescant light socket the hot goes to the center terminal and neut to the ring ie screw for the bulb. Either way the lite works BUT if you put the hot on the screwshell and someone contacts it (like I did once) they can get zapped - like I did.
2. Many DC motors will operate fine regardless of how you connect + and -. This is because you are not changing the connections of the fields when only connecting the DC line. Exception permanent magnet motors OR shunt motors that have the field separately powered.
3. You can put control switches in the neut on motor controls and they will work fine. However if you get a fault to ground on the neut between the relay and an open control switch the machine can start.
Being negligent about following convention, code, and good practice will at the least result in
"who is the dumbshit that hooked this up" to
"I'm gonna wring his neck"
after some guy grabs what he thought was a neut and was actually a hot because you did not follow color convention.
NEVER assume a white or green conductor has zero potential for three reasons
1. Last place I worked they stuck in any old wire that was handy.
2. The neut and the ground CAN have some potential on them. With current on them and long conductor length or a poor connection they can have an IR drop.
3. If and when you cut a neut on a multiwire circuit AND there is an energized load "downstream" of where you cut - one side of the neut is now hot. You also turned off the lites in that room by cutting the neut - course you may have found out that was not a good idea cause you burned a hole in your cutters.
Dan Bentler
In many cases it does not matter electrically which way you connect the two wires. examples
1. Incandescant light socket the hot goes to the center terminal and neut to the ring ie screw for the bulb. Either way the lite works BUT if you put the hot on the screwshell and someone contacts it (like I did once) they can get zapped - like I did.
2. Many DC motors will operate fine regardless of how you connect + and -. This is because you are not changing the connections of the fields when only connecting the DC line. Exception permanent magnet motors OR shunt motors that have the field separately powered.
3. You can put control switches in the neut on motor controls and they will work fine. However if you get a fault to ground on the neut between the relay and an open control switch the machine can start.
Being negligent about following convention, code, and good practice will at the least result in
"who is the dumbshit that hooked this up" to
"I'm gonna wring his neck"
after some guy grabs what he thought was a neut and was actually a hot because you did not follow color convention.
NEVER assume a white or green conductor has zero potential for three reasons
1. Last place I worked they stuck in any old wire that was handy.
2. The neut and the ground CAN have some potential on them. With current on them and long conductor length or a poor connection they can have an IR drop.
3. If and when you cut a neut on a multiwire circuit AND there is an energized load "downstream" of where you cut - one side of the neut is now hot. You also turned off the lites in that room by cutting the neut - course you may have found out that was not a good idea cause you burned a hole in your cutters.
Dan Bentler