Home Automation - Neutrals and Grounds

Sparky;

This one's been bugging me for a while, so here goes.........Why do my white return wires go to the SAME strip in my electrical panel as my GROUND WIRES???? What's the theory behind this?

Thanks,

Maitai

I'm not a licenced elctrical person, but I have done a fair amount of home wiring, so here goes. If you noticed in the electical panel, teh black wire goes to the output of the circuit breaker or fuse. There is different (usually) locations for screw pinch blocks for the white and the ground wires. The black and the white wires carry the main loop for electrical conduction to your any electrical things in your house. The ground wire is usually attached in the most cases to the metal frame of the appliciance or stove or any device that is grounded. If you were (don't try this) touch a live circuit, and touch the black and the white , or the black the ground/electrical box , you would be sunjected to the fill voltage of the circuit. touching the white and the ground wire would give you no voltage if nothing was in use on the circuit, if the circuit is being used , you would be subjected to a lesser voltage, nothing compared to what you would get jolted with the black. See any motor or electrical device gets its power loop from the black and white, in the case of a failure or whatever that electical current gets shorted to the metal frame, you want a quick means of cutting off the power so that someone won't get a dangerous electrical jolt by just touching the metal on the door handle of the refridgerator. Any short to the ground would cause the breaker or fuse to pop. You cannot use the white to ground to the appliciance caseing if you value your life any, because that wire is part of the loop that runs the motor or whatever. The ground wire should have no power on it unless there is an failure in the electrical device (fridge/stove, etc) and you need a ground return that is not part of the normal electical load loop, so that in normal non-failure circumsatances there is no electricity on it and is normally connected to the chasis of the electrical device. I hope thsi makes sense, yes both the white and ground are basically connected to the frame of the electrical panel but they each serve a different purpose , and are there for safety reasons.