15-12-2016, 08:49 AM
Jeffrey et al,
Just me being a provocative to see who fell into the trap!
Most power points do not have Phase (live) and Neutral marked.
Although the new Legrand power points are colour coded whereas the previous ones weren't
The reasoning for live and neutral being interchangeable is that there is no fuse in the plug.
The fuse (cartridge) or nowadays circuit breaker is in the live feed in the consumer unit/distribution board.
Opening the fuse carrier/circuit breaker breaks both live and neutral.
Obviously there is no option to lower the fuse rating for individual appliances as is the case in systems that use fused plugs. The fuse/circuit breaker protecting a series of power points is either 16Amp or 20Amp depending whether there are 5 or 8 power points on the feed.
If there is a mains switch on the equipment it could be in either the live or neutral conductors which rather renders the colour coding of mains flex a bit redundant apart from the earth wire!
You definitely must unplug the device before working on it as you cannot rely on the mains switch opening both live and neutral.
Jeffrey -
Greetings from Poland! we are staying in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) as we are attending Lusha's brother's wedding.
We drove past the camp on our way here to our accommodation.
Andy
Just me being a provocative to see who fell into the trap!
Most power points do not have Phase (live) and Neutral marked.
Although the new Legrand power points are colour coded whereas the previous ones weren't
The reasoning for live and neutral being interchangeable is that there is no fuse in the plug.
The fuse (cartridge) or nowadays circuit breaker is in the live feed in the consumer unit/distribution board.
Opening the fuse carrier/circuit breaker breaks both live and neutral.
Obviously there is no option to lower the fuse rating for individual appliances as is the case in systems that use fused plugs. The fuse/circuit breaker protecting a series of power points is either 16Amp or 20Amp depending whether there are 5 or 8 power points on the feed.
If there is a mains switch on the equipment it could be in either the live or neutral conductors which rather renders the colour coding of mains flex a bit redundant apart from the earth wire!
You definitely must unplug the device before working on it as you cannot rely on the mains switch opening both live and neutral.
Jeffrey -
Greetings from Poland! we are staying in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) as we are attending Lusha's brother's wedding.
We drove past the camp on our way here to our accommodation.
Andy
