Re: Polarity(?) and common house-current

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:53:44 -0400, "Stormin Mormon" <cayoung61**spamblock##@hotmail.com>
wrote:

The narrow blade goes into the "hot" slot. The wide one goes
into the neutral.

with a polarized plug, you turn the switch off at the
appliance, and there is "hot" power up the cord, and to the
switch. The rest of the appliance is safe to touch.

With a same size plug, the switch might turn off the power
in the appliance, or it might turn off the neutral, leaving
the appliance energized all the time. Energized, as "can
shock you". Not energized as in "costing your electricity".

And the non-compatibility between the wider-blade eqpt. and
the old 2-prong receptables is just "Tough Titty".

OK. The issue is just hot/neutral (and maybe idiot-proofing).

When I moved in here many years ago, I wired all kinds of stuff. All
major appliances, etc are nec-compliant with grounded plugs. I
rewired/grounded one of the old receptacles for the pc.

It wasn't practical to rewire the other 2-prong receptacles. Some run lamps
and/or nickel/dime stuff. Several get no use at all. I grind off
the wide blades so components, ext. cords, etc will work together.
So their "compatible" components will be functionally compatible,
plug together, etc in the old rec's.

Is there a convention for the old 2-prong receptacles? Perhaps install
so the neutral is on the left? I could pull 1 from the wall for inspection,
but I'm damned if I'm gonna pull all 14 (or whatever).

Suppose one firmly and simultaneously touches un-insulated parts of
2 ungrounded appliances where:

a.) One is wired with hot switched and other with neutral switched?

b.) Both are wired with neutral switched?

Thx,
AQ
.

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