schuko plug

[adyc]

As we know schuko plug are unpolarised plug (there is no distinction between live and neutral, you can plug in either way), will it be dangerous as we all know that live wire carries power to the component and neutral return current to the power station? There can be cases neutral wire of your HiFi component actually connects to the live wire of the power station.

Can someone from Europe enlighten me no this?

 

[Alan Sircom]

As we know schuko plug are unpolarised plug (there is no distinction between live and neutral, you can plug in either way), will it be dangerous as we all know that live wire carries power to the component and neutral return current to the power station? There can be cases neutral wire of your HiFi component actually connects to the live wire of the power station.

Can someone from Europe enlighten me no this?

No, because there is a 'distribution box' just like the circuit breaker panel you have in your home. This also 'unbalances' the three-phase power for domestic use. This is fed by a 'consumer unit' (in UK systems, I think it has a different name in other countries) which is basically a huge circuit breaker that you don't get to touch - because it's typically somewhere in the region of 100A.

In a UK domestic circuit, everything runs on ring circuits, so the individual plugs require fuses, and the distribution block has a master fuse that might have 20+ devices hanging off it. Schuko uses smaller spurs, so the distribution block has more master fuses, but doesn't require fused plugs because there are fewer devices off each spur.

The fuse in the plug on UK circuits is (at least notionally) there to prevent the power cord from burning (240V, 13A could do that in theory), the case fuse prevents the device from catching fire and the fuses in the distribution block prevent the wires in the walls and ceilings from melting.

There is a possibility of an isolating transformer losing one phase of the domestic supply and still being 110V-115V, but their use in domestic audio is extremely rare in Europe, and this would suggest a particularly unlucky set of circumstances that are about as likely as Elvis winning the lottery.

 

[Vincent Kars]

There can be cases neutral wire of your HiFi component actually connects to the live wire of the power station.

Not as far as I know. All our gear is designed to cope with swapping live and neutral.
The present regulation in my country (The Netherlands) requires a live, a neutral and a earth wire.
The gear runs on live/neutral and any conductive part e.g. a metal chassis should be connected to the earth wire.
All houses are equipped with a "aardlekschakelaar"
It measures the difference between live and neutral.
If there is one (current in should be current out) it breaks the circuit.
A far more save manner than a fuse because before a fuse melts (today 24A) there must run a substantial current indeed.
A aardlekschakelaar reacts even when there is a small difference.

 

[microstrip]

All distribution boards in my house are equipped with a 30 mA residual-current device (RCD) ("aardlekschakelaar" ). Relying on the neutral wire or plug pin to ground your equipment is dangerous and not allowed - if the neutral wire is broken by any reason all your equipment metal parts of a switched on apparatus became live!

 

[Vincent Kars]

Thx for the translation

 

[adyc]

All distribution boards in my house are equipped with a 30 mA residual-current device (RCD) ("aardlekschakelaar" ). Relying on the neutral wire or plug pin to ground your equipment is dangerous and not allowed - if the neutral wire is broken by any reason all your equipment metal parts of a switched on apparatus became live!

I am not suggesting to ground the neutral to earth. As you know, for example, UK plug has an earth pin and it acts as reference whether the left or right pin under earth pin is live or neutral. For the German schuko, it does not have such earth pin. I read from Wiki, you can plug in either way without any violation.

Can all HiFi gears cope with swapping live and neutral?

 

[Speedskater]

A "aardlekschakelaar" or RCD or GFCI has one task while a fuse or circuit breaker as another.

A fuse or circuit breaker asks the question:
Is the circuit using more current than it's designed to handle?

A "aardlekschakelaar" or RCD or GFCI asks the question:
Is even a small amount of current leaking from the circuit (like through a human body)?

But if a human touches the Hot wire with one hand and the Neutral wire with the other hand, neither type of device will protect him.