[Milsurplus] Power line safety

[gl4d21a at juno.com]

Pete:

This subject received a lot of attention in the old days before the introduction of the safety ground in the US.  Now, the question is do you switch the fuseholder off with the switch, or protect the switch with the fuse?  Some old style fuseholders, and fuseholders wired incorrectly exposed someone changing the fuse to a potential shock hazard.  So, let's specify a new design fuseholder first.  Then, the ground wire is to be directly connected to the chassis, the neutral wire goes directly to the low side of the power transformer, or whatever is powered, and the energized conductor goes first to the correct terminal on the safety fuseholder, the downside of the fuseholder goes to the switch, and the switch ouput then goes to the high side of the load.

You will find many variations over the years, most conforming to someone's safety code at the time.  Doesn't mean they were necessarily safe.

HTH
73,
George
W5VPQ

BTW, I carried an AC meter with me on my last trip to the UK.  The majority of outlets I checked over there were not in compliance with the current UK wiring code.  Maybe it was because I could only afford to stay in cheap hotels.


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