Machine, consumer electronics, and walls all have different color codes.
Posted on 07/03/2012 7:20:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The ability to run the refrigerator (furnace in winter), have a few lights on and fire up the computer make life not so tough for a few days.
Lots of electronics is run by "connecting" the ground. Turns out that house electricians like to do the same thing.
SHTF isn’t anywhere close to as likely as more prosaic storm events, yet a lot of people don’t plan for storm events.
It’s still likely that you will have internet after a storm that kills the power. Power for the modem (broadband or otherwise) and computer is usually the only problem. Phone companies have their own power backups. A little car-type inverter can feed a modem and computer unless your computer is a humongous kilowatt gaming unit.
Gack, a switch in the neutral is an egregious breach of both all code and common sense. But the DIY crowd cares not, so long as it works and blows no fuse.
Years after one particular DIY job (by a smart-@$$ relative the identity of whom I will not divulge) I discovered that touching the medicine cabinet and the faucet together with bathroom light off would shock you. Connecting the two with a jumper lead turned the bathroom light on. Yup, way before GFCIs.
I guess in the USA white is cold, whereas in Europe blue is cold. In the USA it would be OK to use blue for hot, or any color other than white, grey, or green. Globetrotting electricians should be careful.
You don’t have to go anywhere, US factories are full of (IEC) euro coded machinery.
For extra fun, with age the (Euro neutral) blue turns (US hot) black...
If you’re talking about the innards of dedicated equipment, all bets are off. I mean house and building wiring.
And the Euros picked a lousy blue dye for their neutrals that blackens? That’s worse than pale red M&Ms.
In our case, we bundle. So the storm knocked out cable: no TV, Computer, Phone. But maybe my hubby knows what an inverter is, I don’t. Ha. I just heard thunder and it’s suddenly dark out. Here we go again. Thanks for the advice.
Better description of my photos than I could have done myself.
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