There are, in fact, not so many kinds of conductors and their connections. In the electric power industry, there are power and protective conductors. Some have heard words such as “zero” and “phase” wire. However, questions arise here. How to determine zero and phase in a real network?
What are the conductors in the outlet?
You can understand the question “what is phase and zero” without delving into the jungle of elucidating the structure, advantages and negative aspects of three-phase or five-phase circuits. You can actually make out everything on your fingers, revealing the most ordinary home outlet, which was put in an apartment or private house ten to fifteen years ago. As you can see, this outlet is connected to two wiring. How to determine zero and phase?
How do wires work in a power outlet and why are they needed?
As you can see, there are certain differences between workers and zero. What is the designation of phase and zero? Bluish or blue color is the color of the phase wire, while zero is indicated by any other colors, except, of course, blue colors. It can be yellow, green, black and striped. No current flows through the neutral conductor . If you take it and not touch the worker, then nothing will happen - there is no potential difference on it (in fact, the network is not perfect, and there can still be a small voltage, but it will be measured in millivolts at best). But with a phase conductor this will not work. Touching it may result in an electric shock, even fatal. This wire is always energized, it receives current from generators and transformers of electrical substations and stations. It is always necessary to remember that it is impossible to touch the working conductor in any case, since a voltage of even a hundred volts can be fatal. And in the outlet phase voltage is two hundred and twenty.
What is the difference between the euro outlet and the Soviet?
How to determine zero and phase in this case? In a socket designed with European standards in mind, there are three conductors at once. The first is phase, which is energized and painted in a variety of colors (except for blue shades). The second is zero, which is absolutely safe to touch and painted in blue. But the third wire is called zero protective. It is usually colored yellow or green. It is located in sockets on the left, in the switches - from the bottom. The phase wire is located on the right and top, respectively. Given such colors and features, it is easy to determine where the phase is, and where is zero, and where is the protective neutral wire. But what is it for?
Why do we need a protective conductor in Euro outlets?
If the phase is designed to supply current to the outlet, zero - to lead to the source, then why do European standards regulate another wire? If the equipment that is connected is working properly, and all the wiring is in good condition, then the protective zero will not participate, it is inactive. But if suddenly a short circuit occurs somewhere, or an overvoltage, or a short circuit to some parts of the devices, then the current gets to places that are usually without its influence, that is, not connected to either phase or zero. A person can simply feel the electric shock on himself. In the worst situation, you can even die from this, since the heart muscle can stop. This is where the protective neutral wire is needed. He "picks up" the short circuit current and directs it to the ground or to the source. Such subtleties depend on the wiring design and the characteristics of the room. Therefore, you can safely touch the equipment - there will be no electric shock. The thing is that the current always flows along the path of least resistance. In the human body, the value of this parameter is more than one kilo Ohm. The protective conductor resistance does not exceed several tenths of a single Ohm.
Determination of the purpose of conductors
How to determine zero and phase? Any person in one way or another came across these concepts. Especially when you need to fix the socket or do wiring. Therefore, it is necessary to understand exactly where the conductor is. But how to determine zero and phase? It must be remembered that all manipulations of this kind with electricity are dangerous. Therefore, in case of uncertainty in their actions, it is better to contact a specialist. If you already approach the outlet and wires in it, it is necessary to start to completely de-energize the entire apartment. At a minimum, this can save health and life. As mentioned earlier, usually the designation of phase and zero is done with the help of coloring. With proper labeling, distinguishing them is not difficult. Black (or brown) is the color of the wire phase, zero usually has a bluish or bluish tint. If a European standard socket is installed, then the third (protective zero) is made in green or yellow. What to do if the wiring is monochrome? As a rule, in this case, at the ends of the wires there are usually special insulating tubes having the necessary color marking. They are called "cambric".
Detecting conductors with a special screwdriver
How to determine zero and phase? For this, it is most convenient to buy a special indicator screwdriver. The handle of such a device is made of translucent or transparent plastic. Inside the built-in diode - a luminous bulb. The top of such a screwdriver is metal. How to determine zero and phase by this method?
The procedure for performing work when measuring with an indicator screwdriver:
- disconnect the apartment;
- we clean the ends of the wires slightly;
- we part them in order not to accidentally cause a short circuit by touching the phase and zero;
- turn on the switch and supply current to the apartment;
- we take a screwdriver by the handle, which has a dielectric coating;
- put your finger (thumb or index finger) on the contact, which is located on the back of the outlet;
- touch the working end of the indicator to one bare conductor;
- carefully observe the reaction of the screwdriver;
- if the diode lights up, then we can safely say that this is a phase ;
- by exception we understand that the remaining conductor is zero.
The indicator screwdriver responds to voltage. Naturally, in the neutral wire it is not. However, there is a significant drawback of this method. With the help of an indicator screwdriver it is impossible to understand how to determine: phase, zero, earth - where what is the case with a European outlet.
Method for determining phase and zero using a voltmeter
If the wires are not painted in the appropriate colors, and there is no indicator screwdriver at hand, then you can go the other way. We need a voltmeter (multimeter, tester). It is necessary to set it to the required range - over two hundred volts of alternating current. How to determine the phase with a tester? We take one conductor that moves away from the device (indicated by V). We attach it to a previously de-energized conductor (any). Then we apply current (turn on the switch). And just fix what the device display shows. After all of the above, turn off the power again and transfer the tester clamp to another conductor. If there is nothing on the display, it means that we have either a zero or a protective earth ground wire in front of us. However, you can use another method that answers the question: "How to determine zero and phase, as well as grounding." To do this, de-energize the apartment again, fix the clamp V on one of their wires. The second is also thrown on any of the three conductors. The voltage turns on. If the arrow does not move, then you have chosen zero and protective. Accordingly, the voltage must again be turned off and the position of terminal V changed (throw it on another previously unused conductor). Turn on the current again and take the appropriate measurements. Then we carry out the same operation, but again we change the conductor. Now you need to verify the results. If the first digit turned out to be larger, it means that we measured the voltage between the phase conductor (on which the V terminal was hung) and zero. Accordingly, the second wire will be a protective ground. This method is based on measuring the potential difference.
Exotic methods for determining phase and zero in wiring
There are "folk methods" that do not imply the presence of any special devices. You can use them only in extreme cases, since they are associated with increased danger to health and life. For example, the potato method. For this purpose, a freshly cut piece of potato is put on previously de-energized conductors. It is necessary to prevent the wires from touching each other so that there is no short circuit between them. Then, just for a couple of seconds, they energize and look at the potatoes. If one section near the wire turns blue, then the phase is connected to it.