What Is A Neutral Wire? 

Thanks for the comment.

I’m not trolling you or arguing. I’m just trying to understand this. If the neutral wire is not a current carrying conductors, which is contrary to nearly everything I am reading and seeing everywhere, including from my employee who has a masters in electrical engineering, then why will a piece of equipment operate when you invert the hot and neutral wires.? Most videos and literature that I’m reading say that the neutral carries the current back to the transformer. But you say that the neutral is not a current carrying conductors.Both of these cannot be true. Can they? Thank you.

@@masonsteven77 I never wrote that a neutral wire is not a current carrying conductor. Of course it is. But your drawing and explanation of an AC circuit is incorrect because or your thinking that L1 and L2 are each carrying 120V from the transformer and the neutral is carrying it back. You mislead your viewers on several points. 1) AC voltage here in the US is reversing its charge from RMS 120V positive to RMS 120V negative 60 times/second. 2) What we call a neutral in a 120/240V service is merely a conductor that is part of a circuit between L1 (or L2) and the midpoint tap of the secondary. It has 0V potential to ground only because we connect it to ground so that it won't have a potential to ground. Try this: Draw a simple two wire circuit from the ends of a transformer secondary - voltage X . Call the leads A and B. Now try to tell me which is the "hot" and which is the neutral. You should realize that both of the wires are current carrying and that neither is just carrying voltage to or carrying voltage "back." Also realize that you could ground either side of this circuit and the only thing that will change is it will simply put that grounded side at a 0V potential to ground and the other side at a potential of XV to ground. Now draw another section of secondary winding - same number of windings - connect one side to B and call the other side C. Now the voltage A-B is X, the voltage B-C is X, and the voltage A-C is 2X. (You could add another section of secondary in the same manner and call it D, and the voltage of A-D would be 3X, etc) You could ground this secondary from any one of these points, and it would "anchor" that part of the secondary to ground - 0V potential. Lets say you ground the seconday at C. Voltage of A to ground would be 2X and voltage of B to ground would be X. It does not make the C leg a "return path."

Hi, I'm living in Thailand. My house has no neutral wires in switches. I was trying to change one of the 3gang switches with a smart switch, I found that there are 2 hotlines; one for one point and the other for the other two points. When I try to connect the 3 gangs with one hotline, I've got a short circuit and the circuit breaker always cut. Any explanation? How to fix my problem. Thanks for any feedback in advance.

@@dburt1 I'm trying to wrap my head around how the neutral wire works. I'm confused. Wouldn't the center tap of the secondary winding always by 0v? Since either end is positive while the other is negative and then they reverse at 60Hz? The middle tap would always be in between those 2 numbers right? No matter the numbers are? Also, to my knowledge the grounding rod doesn't protect people from getting shocked, only lightning strikes and power surges to protect the home's electrical system. Bonding the grounding wire to neutral is what gives us the over current protection. Right?

@@CupidFromKentucky "Wouldn't the center tap of the secondary winding always by 0v?" 0 volts to what? Voltage is always between two points. Assuming you mean ground, then no, it will only be 0 volts if we 'clamp' it to earth potential. It's 'neutral' to L1 and L2 meaning it is always *in-between* ) the potentials. I.e. when L1 is at +120v to neutral, the other is at -120 volts to neutral, and thus the 'in-between' value is zero (and why it's called neutral). This gets at why current between the 'hot' lines cancels on the main neutral feeder. Note that a 120c branch circuit has no current cancelling going on on its 'neutral' and the white wire in that case really is just the 'grounded conductor.'

Ted, that's a fair point thanks for the comment and clarification and expansion of the topic. Tried to show the neutral going back to the transformer in the diagram but some "current arrows" would have been a good indicator. Agree with you that the ground and neutral are bonded in the electrical panel. Sound's like you know a lot about electrical wiring thanks for watching and the helpful comment.

@@OneHourSmartHome If the ground and neutral are connected then why does the current want to flow back to the transformer instead of the ground?

Thanks!

Yes. Common is also known as "Common Neutral".

When we ground something you effectively put it at the same potential as ground. The grounded conductor has zero volts to ground which makes it not considered a hot conductor. All other conductors in the system are considered hot because they have voltage to the ground.

I’ve been working with electricity, electrical engineers, control systems, and have actually designed electrical distribution systems that are in place right now. When you find the answer to this question, please let me know, because I’m all my years I can’t find someone that can explain this to me!!

@@masonsteven77 do you mean why does the neutral wire show zero voltage to ground? or do you want to know why the neutral wire not carry as much current as the hot wire sometimes? the neutral wire has zero potential to ground because it is bonded to ground at various places in the system. the neutral wire sometimes does not carry as much current or amps as the corresponding hot wire pair if you use a loop current tester over the wire because some or all of the current goes back to transformer via the other hot wire. two hot wires. 240v between the two. the neutral is a center tap between the ends or two hot wires on transformer. the two hot wires are 180° or opposite in phase. when one is positive the other is negative. so when one is "pushing" the other is "pulling". so if you have two equal loads one connected to one leg or hot wire and the other connected to the other leg or hot wire the entire current can flow back an forth in big circle/circuit between the two legs/wires/end of the transformer and not have any current o the neutral or center tap wire between the two ends/two legs/two hot wires.

@@masonsteven77 most important to realize the the two legs or hot wires are always out of phase or opposite sign to each other. so the current can go back and forth between just them. if you have a 220v appliance or load it does not use the neutral. current goes leg to leg or hot to hot or end to end. whichever words you wanna use to call them. if you have two separate 110v things one on each leg or bus/side in panel. the electricity makes it basically one 220 load between the two and skips the neutral wire. now if the two separate 110v things have different loads or currents then the difference is carried by the neutral.

@@masonsteven77 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P-W42tk-fWc.html check it out. it explains it and has nice graphics.

Ema Nymton carried where? That’s my question. Where does the power go? To ground? If to ground, why is there no short circuit?

Yes, it is normal in some cases, particularly in older homes. I've also read that many electricians will keep the switches and receptacles on separate circuits when wiring new or heavily remodeled homes. I don't think that this is always done, because the electrical code does not require it. It's not a safety issue as long as the wiring is appropriate for the expected load. The main advantages of keeping them separate is in case of a tripped receptacle circuit, the lights will still work. The other advantage is in allowing lower current ratings for switches.

@@surferdude642 the main reason lights are separate from an outlet circuit is to diminish the voltage drop (dimming) of the lights when a power tool (motor, usually) is used. If lights have their own circuit on the other 120VAC leg, the dimming will be less (waaay less) than running a motor in series with the lights. But it is allowed, and is stupid to keep them on the same phased in series circuit.

@@mateobrainardo4770 That's a good point, thanks for the explanation.

If the above situation is true, your circuits are pFukt, and your house is about to incinerate to ashes bro. Bruh. Fuxxit. Bruh.

HI if i understand you correctly, you turned off 1 circuit breaker and you still had power present. this is what's called a multi wire circuit. were 2 hots or ungrounded conductors share a common neutral. this type of circuit is required to have a 2 pole circuit breaker. so when you open the circuit breaker both hots or ungrounded conductors are opened at the same time so there is no voltage present or risk of you getting a shock. so i would check your electrical panel. see were the other circuit is and move them both to a two pole breaker.

If the 2 circuits are a 3 wire all nuetrals would be together. To me it sounds you a referring to a 2 gang box in which case chances are it has only one feeder (whether its a 12-2 or a 12-3 doesnt matter) and in that case it is wired correctly: the feed coming ins nuetral, the 2 switch legs nuetrals, and the feed to your first recepticles nuetral all spliced together under the same wirenut. The only instance youd seperate them is if there were 2 feeds with 2 seperate romex cables that are homeruns. If the walls were open id bring only 1 home run to the switchbox and the other homerun wouldnt be in there it would just simply go straight to the first recepticle and get looped out to all the other recepticles.

Volts aren't flowing. Current is flowing. The power consumed by the refrigerator will be volts times current. Whatever current is flowing to the refrigerator is also flowing back from the refrigerator along the neutral wire.

@@tchevrier wr0ng! The neutral (white) wire is tied to ground, this is how the hawt (black) wire “knows” how much higher than zero he is. In USA a single hawt black wire is 120 V higher than ground and can hit on any single-phase hottie he wants. Poke that 120 VAC once, receive 120 VAC. Poke it twice and receive 240 VAC directly in your ass!

neutral goes to the center-tap of the transformer. The transformer isolates the circuit from the primary, but ultimately the current flow on secondary is reflected (though stepped in voltage) in the primary which connects to the substation --> to transmission --> power generation.

This discussion is seriously pFukt up.

For starters the neutral is connected directly to ground. If it isn't then yes you will get a shock.

@@tchevrier do you even know which way the electrons flow? *nobody knows *

@@mateobrainardo4770 LMFAO. WTF are you talking about?

Your circuits are pFried and SUPER-pFukkt.

I believe it is referred to as a neutral wire for exactly the same reason as you explained in point 2. Theoretically if the loads are 100% balanced in the panel there should be no current on the neutral exiting the home.. It should only carry the unbalanced portion of current. That's because it is a centre tap. So the flow of current from the red and black lines are opposite.

It is called a neutral wire because it is connected to ground and therefore is at 0V potential (neutral) with respect to ground, whereas the hot wire is live with respect to ground and has say 120V between them.

@@tchevrier yes and if you connect them together, it will explode

@@kennethcohan9630 And your point is? Other than stating the obvious.

Since you did not say specifically which ground wire you are talking about, this will take a few more words. Grounding electrode conductor connects from the neutral at the first disconnecting means(main breaker panel in this case) to a grounding electrode(ground rods or others listed in NEC). Purpose, to dissipate lightning energy to Earth. Equipment ground conductors(ground wires) are for the instance given where a hot touches metal and energizes it. The low resistance allows thousands up to many thousands of amps in larger services to flow back to the main panel, to the incoming neutral, out to the transformer, through the transformer, and back to the panel to the breaker for the circuit, and magnetically trip the breaker. Hope this helps you. Respectfully, Kevin

because 'it' is current, not energy. ;)

It doesn't end at the panel, it returns to the neutral center tap of the transformer secondary winding. The primary winding needs to have voltage to the transformer for this to work. This power generation is the responsibility of the utility company and that's why we pay for it.