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Live and Neutral Wire

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spaced | 19:54 Tue 24th Jul 2007 | DIY
10 Answers
What dould have if, in a wall plug socket, I place the red (live) into the Neutral connector, and the Neutral wire (black) into the live connector and then plugged something into it?

Would it bang, spark??
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No it wouldn't go bang. The device would work. But its not a good idea to do this.
No it would not go bang,, whatever it was would still work, but why would you want to do that ?, if i have read your question correctly, you are just reversing the live and neutral, but on no account should this be done as all of these things are done for reasons of safety, so just take my word for it, yes it would work but it could be a very dangerous thing to do, you can't see electricity and you can't smell it, but my god you can feel it.
Hi buildersmate.
Glad to see we agree.
The danger with this situation is that the fuse is on the live terminal in the appliance plug, which would now be connected to neutral.
If the appliance develops a fault and blows its fuse, it is still live via its "neutral" side, which is connected to live.
Again, why are you asking, spaced ?
Just don't do it.
Think of having a European two-prong plug fitted. It can connect either way round to the live and neutral at the wall socket, so they are perfectly interchangeable as far as the working of equipment is concerned. Note that these plugs aren't fused.
With UK three-pin plugs, the fuse is an added safety element that simply won't work if the live wire is connected to the neutral terminal of the wall socket, as Nightmare has already stated.
The big problem here is as has been said is that the socket live side cannot be turned off by a switch and in the event of any problem this will still be live and can give a shock. Most of the answers so far have concentrated on what is plugged into the socket and not what is asked in the question ,which is why the continental plug will work because the socket is correctly wired.
spaced
did your daddy never tell you that you do not play with electricity?
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The big problem here is as has been said is that the socket live side cannot be turned off by a switch and in the event of any problem this will still be live and can give a shock. Most of the answers so far have concentrated on what is plugged into the socket and not what is asked in the question ,which is why the continental plug will work because the socket is correctly wired. Cmon Raysparx tell them what happens when you connect live and earth!!!!!!

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