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Need help wiring a 3 prong AC cord. (1 Viewer)

Chris PC

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Need help from someone who knows electrical wiring correctly. Ok. I have a 3 prong AC cord and I'm connecting the three prong (grounded) end to it.

The white and black are the plus and minus of the AC (alternating between + and - @ 60 hz). Here are my questions:

1) The green wire is the ground wire for the round third prong? Correct? Only makes sense since the other two are the semi-standard black and white.

2) Which of the black and white do I wire to each of the polarized flat sockets? Does it matter? I imagine not since its AC. Black or white to either of the large or small socket slots? Just pick one?

Thanx in advance for feedback

:)
 

Shawn Solar

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Black should go to the gold or brass coloured terminal and white to the silver coloured terminal and ground to the green or last terminal. I think the black is the wide prong. I've done a ton of electrical work but I'm not an electrician.
 

Chris PC

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Where abouts are you again? Your name cracks me up. I'm in the renewable energy business to a fair degree. Have done a couple PV installations, and now I'm working with a colleague who started up his own Domestic Solar Hot Water installation company. Ever work with PV panels? You should seriously think about getting into renewables with that name. Its your destiny :) ... and soon everyones destiny with the coming reduction of world wide energy supply, anyways, I digress....

thanx for the info

:)
 

Shawn Solar

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Ya the name is Slovenian. As is my father. In his country it actually was pronouced Sholar. So that would have made me Shawn Sholar. Not Good:D It is as it looks. I install alarms and HT and basically anything low voltage. I was thinking if I ever opened a store I could play on the name hehe.

My bother bought a house and I ended up running a 1000ft of new electrical and lots of reading on code books so to some degree I could be an electrician in a few yrs if I wanted. But alas I am taking electronic engineering and not electrical. I am in the niagara falls area by the way;)
 

Shawn Solar

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cool the prongs themselves I was unsure of. the wiring I did know. Is there any reason why the small prong is nuetral? or did they flip a coin when they designed it?
 

Chris PC

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Well with AC, it can't really make much difference, can it? I mean its 60 hz, so its not set one way or the other. In both plugs, bronze = black = short plug.
 

BrianW

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It does make a difference, and it's the white, wide plug that's neutral, not the black wire. The black wire is hot (in the US, anyway).

The reason it makes a difference is that all white wires should lead to ground. If you were to reverse the white and black wires on, say, a table lamp, then if you were to unscrew the light bulb half-way to expose part of the metal base, that exposed base would be connected to a hot wire instead of to ground. If you were to touch the metal base of the bulb while it's halfway in the socket, it could be deadly if you've swapped the white and black wires. If not, it should be perfectly safe. (Not that I recommend changing a light bulb with the lamp plugged in and turned on, but you gotta design for the extremes.)

[Edit: It's even worse than that. If you reverse the black and white wires, then the exposed base of a half-installed bulb will be hot even if the lamp's switch is turned off.]
 

PaulT

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In Canada (like the US NEC) the White wire is connected to the Neutral bus. The Black wire is Hot (could also be a Red wire), and a Green or plain copper wire is Ground. Also as BrianW states it 'does' make a difference which way you wire the Hot and Neutral for safety reasons.

Dave is also correct in the wiring: The White wire goes to the Silver screw of the plug, the Black wire goes to the Brass (or Black) coloured screw and the Green/Copper wire goes to the Green (may be marked GR) screw.
 

Chris PC

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Ok. So to double-double check. The black wire is hot. This makes sense. Hot means + , correct?

The black wire connects to the shorter of the plug holes. The thing that confused me was that one of the cords has a brass screw and the other screw looks sort of black. No more confusion.

Black = short slot.
White = longer slot.

thanx

:)
 

Bob-N

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Correct. White is neutral and is the wider blade/slot. Don't recall the metal color scheme.

The link above is very clear to the color coding scheme. Click on tab "easy repairs".
 

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