Why do we have "live" and "neutral" wires?

by x10102 Last Updated December 06, 2018 15:25 PM

Our house wiring is AC. I thought that AC means we have current flowing from Wire 1 to Wire 2, after 1s/Frequency it flips and current flows from wire 2 to wire 1 and this goes on and on. I heard something like "Neutral has a 0V potential and only live varies between 240V and -240V" But if that's true shouldn't we have current flowing from neutral to live every 1/30 of a second?

Tags : ac mains safety

Answers 2

You are right. Current flows from neutral to life every 1/30 of a second (1/25 here in Europe). You can think of it this way: During a positive half cycle live wire "pushes" current (note the quotes) to the neutral wire trough the connected circuit (fridge, washing machine, etc.) During a negative half cycle live wire "pulls" current (again note the quotes) to the neutral wire trough the connected circuit. In either case work is done when the current flows.