We’d love too

A lot to learn, apple's and oranges. Fruit but not as you know it. They tell you your credentials are international, but you will still have to challenge the qualifications at the place of Jurisdiction.

Don’t come to the US. You’ll puke.

I'd like to see you compare the differences between Canada and the US despite being relatively similar.

You mean a British immigrant

Probably get arrested if you did that type of wiring in the UK joking but it would never pass as any fault in the earth at the beginning could make every single metal casing live from one live to earth fault somewhere wherever true earth is in the system, hay at least they are using ac only rated RCDs What I find surprising is these RCBOs are very standard but are not used world wide (usa makes there own stuff up with new names so they can be ignored) That bus layout for 3 phase must have gotten expensive and dangerous sometimes when they got bridged

Thanks - UK wiring methods are very different. I like some of the approaches used in Spain.

@@leexgx Ill never understand why America and the UK decided to go with metal enclosures for everything, seems like it just greatly complicates things

@@liquidsnake6879 I am french and I am curious now, what are you thinking of about "metal enclosures" ?

@@tom-sn4gd They don't seem to have a lot of PVC junction boxes, consumer units etc, everything seems to be made of metal, i'm guessing aluminum, you see it frequently on US or UK videos sometimes even the conduits are made of metal and there's special tools they use to bend the metal conduits, stuff like that and ofc they need to ground the enclosures themselves because they are metallic, the Americans often put a special green screw on their junction boxes just to hold the CPC and connect it to the enclosure, just seems like a lot of hassle to me when you could just make the things out of PVC.

Thanks for the great feedback. We are heading back to a few projects in Italy next week. So more learning for us all. We are also keen to visit the US at some point. Cheers Gordon

Connecting a few car batteries to the grid isn't as simple as it sounds when it comes to codes though...

@@rkan2 yes but if it is just a ups behind 1 circuit breaker, and it's connected with same wire diameter as the rest of that circuit, it should be ok i believe. But it was a bad example anyway, it's too big for household breaker boxes and too expensive. There are several diy videos on UKposts to modify a consumer ups to work with car batteries, that is cheaper and easier and never an issue for the code ;)

and in Portugal I've seen that the public garages have emergency lights at the top of columns and at the bottom too

A bit strange to connect all the ceiling lights on one switch!If there is a problem with it you have no light working everywhere!We do it by floor or even by room. So when there is a short cut or so,their is always light in the next room.

@@jooproos6559 Fully agree. The only reason I could come up with is that the load on the ceiling lights is relatively stable and due to the fixed installation not very prone to failures. And you have always light everywhere. But probably its just a tradition…

Do you know what kind of trip curve you use there for the breakers? Had an argument with a German a few days ago. They use B for everything.

Doesnt look very smart to me.A shortcut in one room and the whole house is dark!!🤣

Sounds like a good idea 👍

Yes, in blocks with several apartments in it that's a common thing here in Germany. I have one installed in my house, because I was too lazy to install a four way with four switches in it. So I only need a permanent line and a switched line from the retracting switches. The light switch itself is like shown here, sitting on a DIN rail. I used a 5-core cable supply cable. Brown as permanent line, black as switched line to the light fittings, grey for the switched line from the retracting switches, and blue and green/yellow for the regular purpose of neutral and CPC. But these guys are also available in a version that doesn't require a DIN-rail, you can also have them in a format that fits in a junction box. Now even with wireless switches, in addition to the wired switches. There are also models were you can use a different voltage than the 230V for the switching process, between 8 and 230VUC (universal current, so works with both, AC or DC). That comes from East Germany, they used low voltage from the door chime transformer to operate the contactor, and that one itself switches then the 230V for the light fittings. So they usually have thin bell wires on the light switches in the staircases of big apartment blocks. Of course there's a proper galvanic isolation between the mains and the low voltage.

@@Marcel_Germann Thanks for your comment. I was going to post a question regarding the control cable for the light switches. I have seen lighting installed in the UK with low voltage control cable. I think it was an AMX system that is typically marketed as high end for millionaire mansions.

In Finland office lighting is predominantly done using pulse relays. Its almost rare to see the lighting current go through the switches. Knocking down a wall is easier, when you only have outlets and push switches. Never seen one inside a residential apartment or house here, except for apartment building halls and public spaces.

@@ridetheion5584 Yes, these switches also feature such things like switching when the sine wave passes zero. That reduces the arcing on the contacts of the switch and increases the life time. And you will never notice the delay.

Where is here xx

@@chrisolsen4578 uk

Europe has way better standards compare to us.

Sounds like another great place to visit.

Do you know what kind of trip curve you use there for the breakers? Had an argument with a German a few days ago. They use B for everything.

Here in Spain depends on the electrician. In my house the circuit breakers have a proper jumper not cables

In Spain either can be used. In modern installations they tend to use the bars because it's faster to install, but more expensive.

I personally use busbar here in Madrid,because it is faster to install.

I am an American living in Brazil. I bought my house >20 years ago, it had been lived in by Brazilians for 20 years previously. I have had 4 electricians do intensive work. In these 20 years I have learned some lessons here. 1. Nobody is certified. 2. Their first diagnosis of any problem is "rewire the entire house". 3. You have to monitor everything they do closely as in looking over their shoulder. 4. They arrive without the proper test equipment. 5. Your knowledge needs to be greater or equal to theirs. 6. Expect shoddy workmanship and be prepared to insist they do their work a certain way with you showing them, if required. 7. You cannot leave them alone in your house. 8. The Brazilian products they use are often sub-par quality. 9. Some electrical products are sold without any state or professional accreditation. 10. The electrician may show up in worn shorts, a sloppy t-shirt, and possibly flip-flops....but they are rubber. Last week I hired a tile mason to extend my patio 1m x 2m using all the remaining matching tiles I have. This man is ~60 and has been doing brick and tile work for ~40 years. He laid the extension higher than the rest of the patio so now all rainwater instead of draining like before congregates in the middle of the patio. We get rain here nearly every day. He has dramatically lowered the value of my house. I could literally strangle him I am sooo angry. Yes, I am to 100% to blame...I treated him like an adult....a professional with decades of experience instead of the f**king idiot he is.

@@Mark-gg6iy Como você mora a 20 anos no Brasil, vou te responder em português. Primeiro, lamento por suas experiencias ruins com os "profissionais" brasileiros. Segundo, não entendi seu desabafo aqui, não critiquei o sistema espanhol, apenas relatei uma diferença, por aqui geralmente usamos barramentos de cobre, apenas isso. Se alguém entendeu como uma critica, peço desculpas desde já. Terceiro, existem sim profissionais certificados e muito competente por aqui, que seguem as normas ABNT (Algumas até mais rígidas do que em seu pais) e que usam produtos certificados pelo INMETRO e você, como contratante pode exigir esses certificados de qualificação técnica (Temos ótimas escolas por aqui. inclusive vencedoras do Worldskills) e que o produtos utilizados nas obras sejam certificados, o que não garante qualidade, assim como em seu pais existem marcas e produtos certificados pela UL/CSA mas, de baixa qualidade. Por ultimo novamente lamento por sua experiencia, o mercado está repleto de bons e maus profissionais e em caso de danos, como ocorreu em sua residência, procure o tribunal de pequenas causas para tentar uma resolução amigável ou até mesmo litigiosa.

Thanks 🙏

Hahaa. As it should be.

This is an embarrassment, this board was a mess... We don't do that type of work.

I would agree that proper termination for conduit should be mandatory as well as your other issues. But then again, I live in The Netherlands and we have equally strict rules. So I don't mind we agree on these issues. Electricity should be as save as reasonably possible.

😂 Enjoy your hols

It’s on this list 😂

@@efixx

And it looks like it's unchanged since Edison designed it.

@@LeifNelandDk Not at all. Edison's system was DC and very short haul. If you must credit one name only, make it Westinghouse. I'd be surprised if there had ever been an Edison installation within 2000km of my domicile. NYC is not the USA. And 1876 is not 2023, Leif.

@@d.jensen5153 Exactly. Edison really liked DC for some reason. Biggest problem with DC is it's very hard to change voltages (you can now with DC/DC converters, but those didn't exist in his day). So, many of the Edison installations had multiple supply lines with different voltages for different needs. And because you couldn't step voltages up then back down, distribution was really hard due to high current and large drops. That was really the genius of Tesla inventing AC and Westinghouse popularizing it. The last DC distribution died, I heard, in 2007 (was actually AC distribution but the power company provided DC for some very old installations that had never needed to upgrade)!. We do have HVDC for some large transmission lines, but you'll never see that for local distribution. Don't know what Europe's electrical system historically looked like, but the US system really does actually seem pretty well designed. The design has been mostly the same for probably the last 50 years or so (main supply current has gone up and breakers have replaced fuses). Basic design has been a thing longer than that. Split phase may seem confusing, but it's really great because with a simple arrangement you can have 220V for large appliances and somewhat safer 110V for normal outlets. We usually have more circuits in our panels because of the 110V, but that isn't a bad thing - if a breaker trips, most of the power stays on in your house. It's also nice because, in many houses, a circuit just serves one or two rooms, so that's nice and neat. Downside is you can't run a welder in your bedroom, like the brits can. We still actually do have three phase power widely available though, just not commonly in people's houses (very few people need it in their house). It's common in businesses and industrial settings. It's actually readily available near most people's house - the step down transformers that feeds most houses commonly run on two or three of the legs of the three phase.

Damn 100-400amps. My apartment is 40 amp max. Houses could go to 100amps, but anything above that is a mansion or commercial building.

Thanks - we’ll make a note for when we can find an excuse to visit France! 👍

2nd that. Pop over to Brittany. France has gone from some scary wiring in the 1960s to very sensible stuff, today.

@@decibel_tastic2869 Totally agree, I live in france with an electrical wiring from the 70's, you can plug an earthed equipment in a socket without earth without modifying anything.

@@tom-sn4gd I assume there's method to that madness though. The original idea behind non-earthed electrical installation was called "isolated room". Basically if you're sufficiently isolated from earth potential you could touch a live conductor without getting a shock because no current can flow through your body. Isolated rooms had requirements such as non-conductive floors (timber or lino), no extraneous conductive parts (metal water and gas pipes, central heating pipes and radiators, etc.). In such a room, using a class-0 appliance (only basic insulation over live parts) without risk. A class-1 (earthed) appliance in such a room simply turns into class-0, no harm done. Conversely, using a class-0 device in a room with earth potential can be quite dangerous in the event of a fault. That's why Schuko and French plugs fit non-earthed sockets perfectly fine but the old round-faced class-0 plugs don't fit CEE 7/3 or 7/5 sockets. With stoves/fires being replaced with central heating throughout Europe post-WWII, properly isolated rooms became increasingly rare and more and more countries required earthing of domestic installations. Czechoslovakia was first in the mid-1930s, Germany and Austria followed in 1958 and the Scandinavians dragged their feet well into the 1990s. Czechoslovakia as well as parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland created their own new problems in the process, favouring TN-C installations (two- or four-wire with a PEN conductor throughout the entire fixed installation, very dangerous in the case of a poor connection, a broken PEN causes all class-1 appliances that are turned on to become live), which were only banned in the 1970s when the minimum size for PEN conductors was increased to 10 mm2 copper or 16 mm2 aluminium from the original 1.5 copper/2.5 aluminium.

three phase is common mostly in the country side and in places where people needs more kVA. Maximum for single phase is 12kVA and 36kVA for three phase supply.

For once everything went smoothly Dean 😂

Same here in the Netherlands, there's no RCB for each circuit, IIRC code stipulates that up to 5 16A circuits can be served by one RCB.

@@kaasmeester5903 Sounds about right. Most flats / single familiy houses in Israel, older and new builds are 32 to 50 something Amp supply from the electrial utility supplier, 230V nominal single phase. One RCB / RCCB per familiy dwelling seems suffice to me.

I think Israeli electrics are fairly similar to German except for the sockets. Germany now insists on at least two RCDs to prevent the entire house/flat from being plunged into darkness. Germany was also an extremely early adopter of type A back in the early 1990s. Do you know what type of supply(ies) Isreal uses? TN or TT?

@@Ragnar8504 In Israel we typically have a TN-C-S for recent installations (at least in the last 30 years). The Zero "ballance" is generated at the secondary (400V) winding of the last step down traffo (primary 22K/33K to secondary 400) . This acts as the Neutral return path, and also as the zero point for the three phases, ie 230V Ph-N. For industrial installations, at the main building supply & distribution panel, this C-common is split into the dedicated Neutral buss and dedicated Ground buss. The Ground buss is then bonded to the buildings structural metal work (concrete reebar, water/gas lines, metalic fitting etc..) which in turn is bonded to the ground rods system for that building. This Earth bonding path reduces possible voltage potential between conductive surfaces (metalic parts of a building, water/gas pipes, working surfaces like industrial kitchens, parts of machinery) , and the immidiate earth mass. Thus reducing risk of electrocution.

@@trespire Were older installations TT or TN-C? And on an unrelated note, do you know anything about the history of the mains sockets you use? Apparently the old-style design used in Israel is identical to HNA, a 1930s design from Germany. I wonder how that became Israel's official standard!

I don’t know why you don’t just use “Wago” so much quicker and safer

@@perryoffler4802 i do myself and I agree with you!

@@nathanblyth6739 then you must be a good electrician!

@@perryoffler4802 touche’

Agree - lots of good practices

Malta is an awesome nation, really nice beaches and landscapes!

@@EEST-Militia and horrible electrics....lazy sparkys + butchered UK standards are a scary combination.

There is a clear plastic screen if you look carefully - but only in newer versions.,

The average low voltage electricians gloves are rated for 600 volts, so not a big issue.

I think the PVC pipes used in US are not the same than in Spain. Here we use PVC push-in sleeves that if u use it properly u don´t need to glue it. The L sleeve that u can see in the video is probably due to poor execution.

Us is not up-to-date

The US has clearly polarised power sockets. Due to the Schuko plug, and it's yse in much of Europe, polarisation on single phase really isn't something that's actually done in many, if not most countries as there's little point. It does lead to such things as there's a 50:50 chance the outside screw on an Edison table lamp is live (hot in US parlance - and at 230v), and it also means that there's a 50:50 chance that an appliance with a single pole switch will remain energised even when turned off. Interestingly, the reason why Schuko is not polarised is probably because German supplies started out as 110 + 110 V with a central reference to ground/earth (the latter was always there). So very much like a US 240V circuit, but without the option for a ground referenced neutral. However, it seems that Germany later migrated to using three phase distribution and the individual power circuits became single phase 220V + neutral, but without any polarisation. This history seems somewhat obscure, and I had to do some digging around (Schuko os quite an old system Hence there is no history of polarisation and the proliferation of dual pole switches and breakers. It's unclear to me if the Germans (and other Europeans) extend this to things like light switches, as whilst the power outlets don't allow for polarisation, the cable used is colour coded for live + neutral + ground/earth so it's certainly possible. I certainly wouldn't want a 50:50 chance a ceiling light fitting had a "hot" component when changing a bulb, even if the wall switch is turned off.

Wires into the walls do have polarization. Blue is neutral, brown/black is live, so the light switch should be in the live, and the bulb screw in the blue. Nondeterministic polarization starts at plugs, so yes, in a tabletop lamp pluged to the wall you can have a live screw. Unplug it.

@@TheEulerID switches receptacles etc in USA have markings as to polarity (hot/neutral) so properly wired you wont have an issue with having energized wiring where you dont expect it such as a switched off outlet.

nope thats the ac protector that go first connected to the main circuit and the cables from the provider Super inmunized differentials are used for this: (current parasites¿?¿?¿) está diseñado para evitar que salte por parásitos en la corriente -producidos por equipos informáticos, electrónicos o lámparas LED-.

Actually by Philippine standards, you should have at least 3 separate circuits in your home: 15A for lights, using 1.6mm AWG14 wires; 20A for outlets using 2.0mm AWG12 wires and 30A for aircons using 2.6mm AWG10 wires. For a new home the electrical engineer will usually use more than one circuit for each category, depending on the number of rooms. This will be shown on your blueprints. The mains connection will be at least 60A. All is based on the Philippine Electrical Code which is based on the US NEC 2017. Earth wires are often neglected, but are theoretically required for all outlets. In practice at least aircons and major appliances will have an outlet with an earth connection. As you say it generally works, but all houses we rented have had substandard electrical installations with glaring faults that could have caused fires.

@@ChristianWagner888 we're in the provenances and only have a 30a supply with a double pole throw switch. 2 fuses and that's it. I don't mind doing things out here and "trying" to bring the circuits up to a "better standard" but if I'm not here and the family calls out a local sparky he needs to know what's been done. In the past I've left diagrams only to find he's rewired it all when I'm not around. 🤣🤣

@@anotherledfreak8649 well, we do have a better standard here in Davao City already. One way to improve safety a bit would be to add a 30mA RCD in front of your main outlet circuit(s) together with a 20A circuit breaker. This will prevent people getting electrocuted. For fire safety, it would be preferable though to replace your 30A double pole throw switch with a modern panel board using MCB circuit breakers with at least 3 circuits. Chint is quite inexpensive and has sufficient quality.

@@ChristianWagner888 it's a work in progress 😊. I've already spoken to our guy here and what we need to have in place. Here on Roxas (outskirts) it's just another issue to overcome. Lol Trying to implement UK electrical ideas is hard work especially when I'm not here to oversea the work and argue with the local sparky. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not everything has ended in a circuit in Spain for many years, it is rare to find something like this in Spain unless the house is very old and has not been inhabited for years, the protection box corresponds to a garage, the houses must have 5 circuits at least, in some things you are right, but what I see in videos from the UK and the USA is for reasons related to wooden houses, or that you use materials with "modernized" designs from the past, in the USA in videos I see that they use electrical wiring a single copper wire per pole, instead of multi-wire cabling, which was prohibited or stopped being used years ago in other countries and here, I suppose that replacing it with another cable at this point would be to change not only the cable, it would be How to change the direction of driving on UK roads, here all the wiring and conduits are halogen-free and do not spread flames, there is an EU standardization in almost everything, another example: I saw a documentary about an aquatic amusement park in the Canary Islands from English owners, who used a piping system under an archaic UK pool, complicated to install that leaked at the slightest, and they were proud, the reason why this system is surely only used in the UK is not because it is a good system, it is because it is the one you have been using for decades, to think that all the advances/brands in electricity and plumbing etc that arrive in Spain are from France and especially Germany, not many arrive from the UK it seems to me, that is for a reason And it is true that here in Spain we could work better, that often depends on what they are willing to pay. I'm sorry, maybe it's not understood by the translation.

On it 👍

The Gambia was part of the Commonwealth, so some British electrics.

While some electricians in the UK prefer radial circuits. The UK ring final circuit isn’t going anywhere - we had this confirmed by the IET in a recent live stream 👉ukposts.info/have/v-deo/b2CBd6Jtj4-b1Wg.html

Ring final circuits are only used in countries influenced by UK wiring practices and I can't see any new countries adopting them. I do see an increasing number of UK electricians prefer radial circuits over ring final circuits though. Rings had an advantage over dedicated 15-amp radials for each BS 546 15-amp socket as required by the regs back in the late 1940s but these days the advantages are marginal at best. Two 20-amp radials use virtually the same length of 2.5 T&E but provide more power than a 32-amp RFC. There's no risk of overloading an unevenly loaded or broken ring and testing is easier and faster (no end-to end and figure-8 tests necessary).

Yes, the US uses radial wiring. It does simplify circuit isolation and fault finding. However some of the equipment I have seen in videos from other parts of the world impresses me in how well they work. The workmanship of some installs in these on the other hand would not pass inspections here.

@@Ragnar8504 I would still want a 32A radial in my kitchen, and that's perfectly possible with 4 mm^2 cabling, albeit that only some sockets will allow 3 x 4 mm^2 cables for spurs.

still need some b-roll from you Mark - register box etc.

@@efixx of course, I'll get on to that

Just send us those tickets 🎫

You need to take an extensive retraining course

Sounds like I need a return visit.

@@efixx absolutely

If I remember correctly Norway and the US both use a split phase system. 240 volts is a single phase. The secondary side of the transformer is tapped in the center to provide a neutral, thus providing 2 120 volt hots and a neutral. If you install a double pole breaker in your box you will still get 240 volts with no neutral.

@@willgallatin2802 Interesting, must research more. Essentially it would work the same from the point of view of a ca. 230V device. Then the US split phase would have the center tap wired to a neutral rail, and would have a 120V output available, which I don't think is done in very many places in the Europe by default. I have understood Norway would have 135V from the center point to each of 3 legs but the center is only wired to the earth rail if even there. This had something to do with keeping one broken wire from børking the whole branch in the mountainous terrain where repairs can be challenging. Then at the house feed there would be 230V from leg to leg, essentially each socket gets one side of "delta" wring, and the house earthing would more or less just keep the chassis of each device at the same potential. This is different form Sweden and Finland for example, where the majority of buildings get three 230V legs with the center point fed in as neutral in a "wye" fashion. There would be ca. 400V leg to leg (delta) but that configuration would be more often used in industrial than in domestic settings.

@@jussikuusela7345 In the US it's also common for larger buildings to have 120V/208V "wye" service. 277V/480V wye and 240V delta is also common for very large buildings and industrial facilities. Another type that is common in some places but isn't used much in new installations is 120V/240V "high leg" delta where two legs are 120v between line and neutral but any two legs are 240V line to line.

It's 230V between phase and neutral except in a few places where old 127/220V transformers weren't replaced and they supply two phases. In the case of the video I think it's all double pole because it's a simple panel made using cheap CHINT mechanisms and it's a bit easier to wire everything the same way downstream the RCB, also this way you can have the end of each circuit at the same point and totally independent of other circuits. For some circuits/loads it is mandatory by law to use double pole switches, for example for water heaters and washing machines.

@@ruben_balea I thought it might be something like that.

Good idea 👍

We’ll put it on the list for a return visit 👍

Let us known when you want a visit 😉

We used polarised sockets so live is live, neutral is neutral, in eu/other places that stupid round plug and socket isn't polarised (so Live might sometime neutral and neutral might be Live) so you must use a dual pole MCB It's the lack of correct earthing is so bad in many ways this could make every single metal case live because earth was lost somewhere (probably good they don't actually use metal conduit so at least only the fixtures surfaces might be live lol) The thing is the eu and uk has standards for RCBOs for quite some time now (like 10 years) just use RCBO on each individual circuit (split boards are the worst RCBO vs mcb price isn't much different anymore) and why earth is important (not just an after thought that only needs 1 or 3 earth just to make the regs happy there is earth somewhere in the system)

@@leexgx yes, I reformed our property I including the electrics a few years back and all was fine. Recently the overhead power lines (we live in the campo) were replaced and now live and neutral are swapped. We have double pole circuit breakers but now the light switches interrupt the neutral and not the live. Also in the main panel outside there is a fuse which was in the live conductor but is now in the neutral conductor. I’ll probably hot swap the live and neutral coming to the property at some point.

@@kevinmills5293 really the suppler should swap the main line around if everyone supply is reversed, if it's just your feed then reverse the legs that go into the suppler protection fuse (but do note it's usually illegal and very dangerous to mess with, be super careful with hot leg)

​@@leexgx Dual pole MCBs have nothing to do with sockets being polarized or not. It would only matter if there was a chance of the L and N conductors being swapped from the supply side, not at the socket. If you install a single pole MCB on your line conductors in the board they will always disconnect L conductors, regardless of the polarity of the plug. This only matters on the appliance side, so all appliances sold in the EU have double pole switches. The reason why Spain or France use double pole MCBs is because they predominantly use TT earthing system, where the potential of N conductor isn't always 0, so it's safer to disconnect it entirely. In TN-C-S systems, used in majority of Europe, N and PE conductors are connected at the meter board or in the main DB anyway so it doesn't make sense to disconnect neutral conductors from safety's point of view. The only practical advantage of double pole MBCs in TN-C-S systems is that it's easier to troubleshoot neutral-to-earth faults if there are multiple MCBs supplied from one RCD. Another reason for double pole MCBs in some regions of Europe is that there are still some areas (mainly in Benelux countries, but not only) with old 127/230V systems, where there's no neutral conductor in domestic circuits as they're fed with L-L voltage.

@@Micha-xl5yc surely it would be easier to use an MEN system than clutter up and over complicate the DB?

It is just the standard for resettable fuses. They still exist everywhere, but some places (like the US) got resettable fuses in most places before others. Just depends when the code was updated.

Go 4 it

Can we visit 👍🏻

We’d love to 👍

The regs are only available in Spanish and you need to take an extensive course to register as an electrician.

@@efixx And there is the minor problem of getting a work permit.

🇮🇳 is your gig

Hahahaha....to both of you

Not sure I fully understand your question. Neutral does not equal ground necessarily in the US. Neutral carries unbalanced load back to the tansformer between the two split phases. You have to remember that the neutral is just the "middle" of physical windings on a step down transformer and due to physics its never perfectly at half voltage between the hot wires. The ground wire ensures the neutral doesnt have a floating voltage otherwise over time electrical charges (static electricity) will buildup unequally over the transformer windings causing the "120V" to drift all over the place, which is why there is a connection between ground and neutral in the main panel. If there were more than one ground to neutral bond then you create a circulating current when there is a fault. You dont want circulating as that causes all kinds of things to become energized that shouldnt be and can cause arc burns, fires, or kill people. Our ground wire is connected to a copper earthing rod typ 8-10ft into the ground to get to a patch of lower resistance subsoil for a return path back to the transformer with causing large voltages to buildup on the ground. V=IR, higher the R, the higher V and greater chance of causing arcs. Of course there are 240V only devices where you dont need a neutral wire, just both split phases and a ground wire (red, black, and ground). The ground wire just keeps the case around electrical devices from building up an electrical charge. We choose earth voltage (ground) as our reference point so that when we stand on the ground and touch the metal box of a panel there is no voltage difference. Sometimes this can lead to dangerous situations as if there is enough distance between the transformer and house panel or subpanels along with significant soil changes, the neutral voltage may not equal ground voltage. Several ways to correct this is to form a perimeter grid of 4/0 copper wire around the property to ensure a constant low resistance throughout the ground, you then may need to add a layer of rock over the soil to act as a high resistance insulation between the low resistance subsoil and humans living above. Another possibility might be taking a coper wire and connecting the earthing rod at the house with the earthing rod at the transformer, but same thing you may need tons of rock to cover all that distance. In modern times of 2023, there actually isnt a need for 120V anymore. The US is unable to change standards because many monopolies will loose money if people could get away with purchasing less hardware, equipment, and copper wires. Doing this would get rid of double pole breakers, and change everything to 3 conductors. Hot, "new neutral", and ground making all circuits 240v between neutral and hot. But thats for a different conversation, us engineers are just waiting for a giant solar flare to force the US to join the rest of the world, but we want to keep our 60hz; 50hz is dumb.

Spell check changed a couple words when I first put the question in I fixed it now you might understand

@@DavidBerquist334 i added more information and also did some edits. Hopefully there is a nugget of information that will make sense to you.

Totally agree… hence it’s a Gordon video 👍🏻

In Holland,we use the red fuse drill.

😂

Yes that’s correct ✅

I think that British electricians might be shocked by EU limited safety in the installations - in particular that lack of polarised sockets

@@alanpatterson2384 Huh, you are not an educated electrician, are you? I never heard somebody died on the continent when putting the plug 180° turned into the socket. Their system works, and it is safe since decades. There are strict rules and laws about electrical installation, not every old monarchy sparky understand, maybe.😉

Happy NY to you Sir - good channel

We’ve aired our own dirty washing on many occasions. 👉ukposts.info/have/v-deo/kKiAe2ucqKN8qZ8.html 👉ukposts.info/have/v-deo/bpmBgq14pKRm0qM.html

On the other way,as i'm a electrician who worked in various european conturies,i find the american installations very simple and...with all the respect but a bit hillbilly style at the section of user protection and fire hazard. Like drilling holes thru the wood and passing the cables directly without any external protection.

@@draculakickyourass the 2023 model code in North America is even stricter than what Europe has. Ever circuit is individually GFCI (RCD) and/or AFCI protected with an even stricter trip standard. Wiring that passes through wood is supposed to be shielded with metal to prevent nails from hitting it. The flex conduit isn’t used much here, because it doesn’t meet protection code. The wires need to be in stronger conduit to be left exposed, or it need to be sealed in the wall. 240 circuits are on double pole breakers here. None of those breakers boxes (consume units) would be legal in the USA. They need to be metal here, they need to have more secure covers, they need self closing doors. Very different system.

@@rpvitiello I was not talking about the 2023 code....but about installations i saw ,already made...i don't know when ,in a village house.

Different system. Standard Class2 double insulated appliances. The halogen free, self-extinguishing plastic boxes used for the meters are waterproof. Those will never corrode. There is no need to worry about earthing or bonding as the covers cannot be energised by mistake. It will not introduce different potential to the room.