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Lesson: Chapter 10 — Power and energy in electrical appliances

10.4. The household supply 2 of 2

The household circuit

A home is supplied by a service cable of two wires, the live and the neutral. The current through them reaches the appliances through the circuit inside the house.

Service cable → Overload breaker → Meter → Isolator → RCCB → MCBs → Circuits

Figure to be added

Figure 10.4 — the layout of a household circuit: overload breaker, meter, and a consumer unit holding the isolator, RCCB and MCBs, feeding lamps with one-way and two-way switches and a socket, with the house earth.

Live

The wire not earthed. Between it and the ground there is 230 V, so touching it while standing on the ground gives a shock.

Neutral

The wire earthed near the step-down transformer, so it stays at zero potential; touching it from the ground puts no potential difference across the body.