The difference is historically whether there has been a bonded neutral. My understanding is this wasn't common in EU until more recently. (Bonded means a stake is driven in the ground at your house and connected to one side of the line that is then designated as the "neutral", meaning it has no voltage differential (or very little) with respect to the earth.
In the US the "center tap" of the 240v transformer is what is bonded, so thus each leg is only 120V over the earth. On Mon, Mar 11, 2024 at 6:33 PM EV List Lackey via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > On 11 Mar 2024 at 17:37, Cor van de Water via EV wrote: > > > In my homes in either Netherlands or India, only the phase was > > protected with a breaker. > > I have heard that that's the case in the UK also - breakers are single > pole, > and open only the hot side. > > Maybe branch circuit breakers are double pole only in France. I think > that > historically - maybe still - there was / is no standard for polarizing > French receptacles. Ungrounded plugs will fit them either way. > > So it's not possible to guarantee that the shell of the E27 lamp socket in > my desk lamp is at ground potential. > > Again, it's like the USA many years ago, when 2-pin plugs there were > unpolarized. > > David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey > > To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my > offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > We can't solve problems by using the same kind > of thinking we used when we created them. > > -- Alan Kay > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20240311/67dd27ec/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
