[SML] wire colors

[Lou Poppler]

On 6/28/15, Bruce Purdy via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> 	No, Frank ... Neutral and Ground are NEVER treated as "interchangeable."  The
> neutral (White on this side of the pond) is bonded TO the ground at the
> entrance to the building, so it is sometime referred to as the groundED
> connector, whilst the Ground (carried on separate Green wires) is also known
> as the groundING connector. Note the 'ed" and 'ing' suffixes, they make a
> big difference even though the terms are similar. Again, they are never
> interchangeable!

1. In some cases the service enters the building as High Voltage, and
passes through one or more transformers on its way to the ultimate
loads.  The Grounded conductor should be bonded to ground at any Wye
transformer.  I believe the NEC talks about bonding at the "main"
distribution panel.

2. "NEVER" interchangeable is the theory, and quite correct.  However,
in practice, you find places like a certain shiny new city convention
center where I once worked.  The first time a crew of IA electricians
did a trade show, we found that all the floor pockets had 4-pin
connectors for the 208-wye-120 and for the 480-wye-277 services.  The
building management's "electrical consultant" who was a retired
residential electrician, explained to us that "Ground and neutral are
the same thing" and thus he had specced the 4-wire services on
principle and to save money.

Lou Poppler,
grumpy old fart