OT, a ? for scott thatcher, grnding and bonding? Options

[carambola]

with all the interset in wiring welders, i would like to know the difference between the ground and the noodle. how much difference is there between a three and four prong cord.

and the last install scared me, avg. life 8 years. each time the cover comes off, the wire loosen a little.

[scotty914]

okay by defs a noodle ( nuetral ) is the grounded conductor

the ground is the gounding conductor

they both go to the same place in a main panel, but the ground is for shorts the noodle is for the return leg of the electric. a three vrs a four wire plug and recpt, is simple in a 3 wire plug the nuetral and ground share the same pin in a 4 wire they do not. the reason they changed the code is mostly for dryers, the nuetral and ground were connected to each other inside the dryer. the heating elements use 220 but the timer and rotating motor normal use 110. so what was happening was the ground/nuetral wire was coming off either in the cord,plug or wiring to the panel, so the return leg from the timer and motor had no were to go. but sinse they were connected to the ground it would energize the body of the dryer. then what would happen was the lady of the house would go down to change the stuff in the dryer and she would grab the dryer. and sense she was bare foot ( and preg ) and standing on the concrete floor she would get a charge out of doing the laundry

for most things that are 220 you need to use a 4 wire plud unless it only uses 220, not 110 volt at all, like a hot water heater or a big window AC

and wires do get loose over time, esp AL wiring, its a real fire hazard unless checked every 6 to 12 months.

if you are dealing with AL wire make sure it has penatrox on it, penatrox is an anti corrosion compond ment just for AL, it stops one of the three problems with AL wire ( the biggest on )

sorry its so long

[carambola]

thanks for clearing that up.