Hey! We do this in the UK too! Actually, it varies, depenting on where the system is, but the neutral is bonded to earth at the local substation, and then in most cases, just phase and neutral arrive at the subscribers premises, and the earth is taken from the water pipes, etc. In some cases, the phase and neutral come down a metal pipe, which will therefore be passing through earth in order to get to the subscribers premises. If you have problem with noisy earth, try to improve your bond to the earth. Some long poles sunk into good soil, and a nice thick piece of cable to the earth block ought to help. Regards, Kevin P.S. automatic breakers == MCBs (miniature circuit breakers) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Attila Muhi" To: Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2001 11:26 AM Subject: [OT]: Four-wire electric distribution system Hi, In Sweden we have a low-budget electric distribution system using only four wires, with a common wire for both neutral and protective ground. We split the neutral and protective ground in the fuse-box in our houses. That results in a lot of parasit current in the protective ground, especially when people, not necessarily in the same building, use powerful single-phase loads. My question is: Is Sweden the only country in Europe that don't use 5-wire transmission system, with separate ground and neutral wires ? I do work a lot with clearing those currents, especially for electrosensitive people, and I get very fed up with this ! Also, those automatic breakers (don't know the english word) that compare the current between the three phases and neutral, and triggers if there's a difference, keep trigging from those parasite currents ! Pooh ! Attila Muhi - SM4RAN -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics