>> Definitely in US and Canada black is hot/live/painful/burnt and >> white is neutral/slightly-tingly-to-the-touch. Green is earth >> ground. Red is used as well Frequently, the ground wire is bare copper (no green insulation). Not so much in power cords, but quite often in in-wall wiring. Black is hot. If the cable has multiple hot phases, other hot wires should be red, blue, yellow, etc. Note -- in the US, high volume sales of 2 conductor plus ground romex make it really cheap. This wire has black, white, & ground (bare or green). If it is used for a 240V service with 2 hot phases, the white is _supposed_ to be tape wrapped black/red/blue/etc. Don't bet the installer always did the right thing. White is supposed to be neutral. Frequently, black/white/ground wire is used to switches. In this case, ends of the white wire are _supposed_ to be taped black/red/blue/etc to indicate that both wires are hot phases. Don't bet your life on it. > White Neutrals are bonded to Earth Ground in the building supply > panel in North America. In 120V system (center tapped 240V), the neutral comes down from the pole (or out of a conduit). This neutral forms the panels' neutral phase. White wires are attached to it. An earth ground is _supposed_ to be provided at the entry panel and _supposed_ to be bonded to neutral inside the panel. Don't bet your life on it. > If you get tingly feelings from white wires, you may want to > check the bus bar in the main panel box before it corrodes more > and things start to smoke... At my location (southern California), the soil is frequently dry (poor conductor) and rocky (very hard to drive a ground stake into), so even if the neutral is firmly attached, you may have a poor earth ground. This make it real exciting if the neutral wire in the drop cable breaks (which I've personally seen happen). Lee Jones -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads