What is the difference between neutral, common, and ground (in terms of electricial applications)?

Answer 1

In Y or a delta transformer there are four wires. three hot wires and one middle wire called common wire or neutral wire or sometimes it is grounded and called ground. When you connect between two hot wires you get 220V. If you connect between the common and a hot wire you get 110V.

Answer 2

Electricians sometimes call the neutral common because at the service entrance, all the neutral wires go to a common buss, whereas each hot leg connects to its own distribution breaker. However the term common actually refers to drawings of electrical circuits. The common or "chassis" return path is not drawn as a wire back to the source. This simplifies the drawing by eleminating a lot of clutter. In actual practice, the return path sometimes is not a wire but the metal chassis of the radio or the automoble, or in electronics, the "ground plane" of the printed circuit. The symbol used on diagrams for common is different than for safety ground, and rarely is it connected to the service neutral wire. The safety ground is not an electrical part of the aparatus, normally just a connection made to the exterior metal parts to prevent them from accidental electrical energization. Any current passing through the ground connection is a serious fault and a dangerous condition. The neutral does carry the return current of the hot leg it is associated with. Ideally, at the service entrance common buss, the current from all the legs cancel out at that point which is where the term "neutral" comes in, from the house to the pole, there should be no net current in the neutral. Safety grounding the neutral at the service entrance helps control severe leg load imbalances so that each side remains at nominal 120 volts.

the three are not the same and improper cross connection could lead to serious consequences

Answer 3

In the standard 110 volt plug or receptacle there are three wires. One is called HOT. This is the ( Black) wire that carries the electrical potential. There is another wire called Common or Neutral ( White). This wire carries the return current back to the system supply. Now there is a Green wire called Ground. This wire is physically attached to the appliance case and to the earth at the power pole and is continued through the electrical boxes. When there is a short circuit the current should be fed to earth ground to absorb the current and cause a fuse to open up. If you are holding the appliance and there is no connection between the appliance and ground when there is a short circuit then you become the connection. So never cut off ground pin on a plug. When there were two wire circuits the Neutral was connected to earth and it still is at the Main circuit breaker panel only.

Answer 4

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What is the difference between neutral, common, and ground (in terms of electricial applications)?

Answer 5

Common Wire

Answer 6

in a typical electrical system in a home, the voltage is 220 volts, center tapped to provide 2 120 volt legs.

heavy appliances like a stove, clothes drier, or water heater, are most likely hooked across the two "hot" legs to give 220 volts, and more efficient transfer of energy.

common low power devices use only half that, one input of the device is connected to one of the two "hot" legs, and the other is connected to the center tap.

at the point where the three wires from the service transformer enter the house, the center tap is connected to an earth ground.

at THIS SINGLE PLACE ONLY, the neutral (white in the US) wire and the ground (green, conduit, or bare copper in the US) wires are all connected together. In some homes and most commercial installations the ground is conducted by a metal pipe called a conduit.

the NEUTRAL wire is the return path for appliances that use 120 volts, it is NEVER fused.

a ground wire is used to convey the ground reference to tools and fixtures, no current should ever be placed on this part of the circuit, it is provided as a safety to blow a fuse in case the outside of, say, a power tool is accedentally connected to a hot lead. In more advanced circuits, a breaker will trip if the neutral is shorted to ground, this is called a GROUND FAULT INTERRUPTER, and is required in bathrooms, outdoors (construction sites), and in hospitals.

one common mistake in wiring is to connect the ground and neutral bus at sub distribution panels. the ground and neutral should connect ONLY at the service entrance. If they connect at a sub-panel, the return current will flow through the ground circuit, and create voltages on the ground circuit, this will result in buzzing in audio equipment and horizontal banding in video signals, in extreme conditions this will damage AV type equipment.

Answer 7

i have an older home and there are two red and two black and a ground wire. I am trying to add a dimmer to the light and the new dimmer has spots for three wires and one green ground wire. Question is what do I do with the one extra wire and how do i decided do I cap it or connect it to another wire before I connect to the new dimmer.

Answer 8

neutral and common are synonamous slang for the grounded conductor.
ground is refering to the grounding conductor.
They both return to earth ground, the difference is the grounded conductor is expected to have current flow in normal operation. The grounding conductor is a safety ground that should not be energized in normal operation.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

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