2007-03-09 06:43:50 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
PLEASE Ignore most of these answers. They could kill you.
It DOES NOT mean neutral, live, "hot" (whatever that is), red, brown, white or silver.
Not only that, but Americans should not attempt to answer electrical questions on these UK & Ireland pages because their wiring systems are different from European ones and the confusion could be lethal.
"Common" ONLY means a wire or bus-bar (usually a solid copper rod or block) or other point, to which several other wires are attached.
If you look inside your consumer unit (fuse box) you may see a copper bar with a lot of green-and-yellow wires attached to it. This copper bar is a "Common" earth.
Similar ones will exist behind the insulating covers for Live and Neutral.
If you look at a common ceiling rose light fitting you will see separate "commoning blocks" for the Live, Neutral, Earth wires.
2007-03-09 08:42:34 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Well!! Shocking answers indeed!! Except 'The tank'
A common is not a neutral, or a live. In the uk it usually refers to the common terminal of a 2 way switch, i.e. the feed into the first switch, or the switched terminal from the second, with pass/strap wires in between, or any other similar terminal on a relay, timer etc. It can also refer to a common neutral or earth bar in switchgear, as stated above.
Ignore the answers from the US, they know nothing about the uk wiring regulations, colour codes, voltage, conductor sizes, terminology, or anything. In fact many of them don't even know where the uk is!!
2007-03-09 09:08:22 · answer #2 · answered by jayktee96 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Common on 120V diagrams is mostly considered neutral..But i have seen many so called "electricians" try to wire a relay or hand/off/auto switch, seeing a "common" terminal, thinking a neutral should go there, power it up, and then nothing happens..or..short circuit...Common in this case generally means a hot wire that is feeding a switch. Switching a neutral is not permitted except in specific locations in the National Electric Code.
The term common depends on its application.
2007-03-09 07:28:36 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
yes neutral wire called as common
2007-03-09 09:27:58 · answer #4 · answered by ex_m. thank God 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It depends which part of the word you live in ,in the uk the common cable is live once red now brown.ELSEWHERE IT SEEMS TO BE WHAT WE CALL THE NEUTRAL
2007-03-09 07:22:14 · answer #5 · answered by james h 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Yes it is the neutral wire. Its either black or blue.
2007-03-09 08:13:54 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 5⤋
indeed, also know as the white. Inside the breaker box both the white and the ground attach to the common bar whereas the black (feed or line) attaches to the breaker.
2007-03-09 06:47:08 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 5⤋
1 white neutral
2 black hot
3 red hot (220)
4 green ground
note when wireing outlets or swithes white on silver side
black on gold side green on green ground screw
2007-03-09 07:01:57 · answer #8 · answered by rvblatz 4 · 0⤊ 6⤋
Yup
2007-03-09 06:46:21 · answer #9 · answered by Max 5 · 0⤊ 4⤋