This is, unfortunately, a "common" misconception. (So to speak :-) )
Yes indeed, the ground and neutral conductors are at the same potential. The two conductors serve very different purposes, however.
If you connect the neutral conductor of an appliance to the ground conductor by mistake, the appliance will seem to function normally, (if it is not on a GFI protected circuit.) If sometime later, the ground wire becomes disconnected somewhere in your house, maybe at the ground rod or the electrical panel, then very bad things will happen. The appliance will stop working, even though it is "on", because the current has found a dead end at the ground circuit break. The metal parts of EVERY electrical device and appliance in your house will go to 120 volts, and become live. Everything will seem normal, but it isn't. Someone is very likely to be injured or killed. Your house is waiting for you, personally, to complete the circuit.
If someone were to touch, say, the toaster with one hand and the water faucet with the other, they would get a shock, perhaps lethal. Even if the toaster is off, but simply plugged in. If someone was in the bath, and touched a light fixture, or a switch plate, they would get a shock.
The ground conductor can have _no_ current flowing through it under normal circumstances. It is there for safety purposes only.
If you are thinking "What are the odds that this will happen?". I was an electrician in a former life and this happens all the time. The ground rod conductor gets loose or damaged by gardening equipment, and the bonding wire to the plumbing is left dangling because it was disconnected during a DIY remodel. Then, all it takes is a cheapo surge suppressor to fail, (and connect the hot to the ground) and your entire house becomes live, waiting for _you_ to complete the circuit to a pipe, or a masonry floor, etc.
<soapbox mode = "off"> Bill D. On 9/5/2021 8:55 AM, Lawrence Rhodes via EV wrote:
I thought you could mix ground with neutral? Not sure I know what I am talking about. Two of my 3 AVCON EVSE use neutral. Lawrence Rhodes _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
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