7/15/2023 0 Comments Reverse polarity outlet![]() ![]() Seems to me unlikley that the reversed polarity would cause this, but I can't be sure. I trust your wisdom very much, so before I make a claim to cover the damages to my landlord, I wanted to ask you this: Who is right? Can a reversed polarity (swapped live/neutral wires) in an outlet damage a power supply? ![]() However, other people I have asked have said that reversed live/neutral with AC current cannot possibly damage the power supply. After a minute of being plugged in, and without me even turning the computer on, sparks started spewing from the power supply, rendering it toasted.Īn electrician came in and tod me that the swapped live/neutral wires resulted in the damage to my power supply. This 3 prong adapter allowed me to plug in my surge protector, which the computer power supply was connected to, into the 2 prong outlet. ![]() However, the outlet turned out to have the live wire and neutral wire swapped. There was a 2 prong outlet that I used a 2 prong to 3 prong adapter on (this usually works by using the screw of the socket as ground). Every 8.33 ms the entire electrical grid is a zero voltage.I recently destroyed the power supply on my computer. With a 60 Hz AC circuit there is time at 120 times per second that there is zero voltage applied to the AC line. 120 Volts AC has a peak voltage of 169.7 Volts. The neutral wire concept originated with Thomas Edison DC electric homes where you could provide a +120 to GND and GND to -120 volts DC.Įventually, AC replaced DC and the AC voltage was given 120V RMS to be equivalent to a DC circuit. Other parts of the world with 220 or 240 volts don't even have the concept of a neutral wire. If you run 240 Volts there is no need for a neutral wire. Hot and Neutral is a cookbook solution for Electricians. The electrons flowing in the wire have no idea which is hot or neutral. Without the Ground bus connection at the service panel the hot would be 60+ and 60- and the neutral would be 60- and 60+. The neutral wire will not be at zero volts because it carries current and with the voltage drop (IR) across the wiring infrastructure will move around because other loads throughout the house share the neutral bus within the wiring infrastructure. The neutral side of the AC circuit is ultimately connected to the Earth Ground at the main service panel with forces it be close to zero volts compared to GND. What can happen is if the Appliance manufacturer does a bad job and connects the neutral side to the chassis which should never be done you might notice. AC voltage and current switch 60 times per second which means they automatically reverse voltage. Technically there should be no difference to the load if the Hot and Neutral are reversed. ![]() However if you live in a country where correct polarity is expected (such as the US and the UK) you should respect that expectation to ensure that all equipment is safe, even older equipment or equipment that was built in your country and never intended to be exported. It is possible to design applicances that meet safety requirements even if live and neutral are reversed and most modern appliances are likely to be built this way since in many parts of the world unpolarised plugs are the norm. A single pole protective device that ends up in the neutral also can't provide any protection against faults to earth. In particular if a single pole switching or protection device ends up in the neutral due to reverse polarity it can leave the appliance in an "off but live" state which is undesirable. Relative to earth the hot is varying (both positive and negative) while the neutral stays at roughly zero voltage relative to earth. The relative voltage between hot and neutral is constantly reversing but that doesn't mean that the two conductors are the same. ![]()
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