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From: mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: ANOTHER house wiring question (this one's basic)
Message-ID: <1991Jan15.165757.23816@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 91 16:57:57 GMT
References: <kJhTxoE@quack.sac.ca.us>
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Lines: 12

Ground and neutral are supposed to be connected together at the transformer.
That's why there's never a substantial potential difference between
ground and neutral.

Incidentally, "every half cycle the voltage goes the other way" has
nothing to do with it. It reverses polarity, but it's still connected
across exactly the same wires.

The power for your house comes out of a 220-volt-center-tapped transformer
winding with the center tap grounded, and connected to Neutral.
Live is _either_ of the other 2 transformer wires, depending on which circuit
of your house you happen to be looking at.