Eli5 – Why is there both neutral & ground wires in light switch?
In: 5
Like a lot of stuff, electrons want to flow from places where there’s a high concentration (negative charge) to a place where there’s a low concentration (positive charge). The flow of electrons is electricity. Normally, we get fancy and set up a circuit – basically we make the electrons flow in a circle. So your system has a hot wire, where you pump the electrons down, and a neutral wire, where the electrons come back where they came from.
Ground wires connect to the literal ground. If something in your house gets a huge oversupply of electrons, it needs somewhere to dump them. That’s what the ground is for.
The ground is connected to the neutral wire in the circuit breaker box in most setups. A circuit breaker’s job is to detect when there’s a short circuit, letting way too much electricity through the circuit.
Say the hot wire comes loose in your light switch, and now it’s resting on the metal body. That’s a fire and shock hazard. Which is why you’ve got a ground wire – it’ll at least dump electricity into the ground, reducing the hazard. But it’s still a problem, and your circuit breaker won’t trip because your circuit isn’t shorted, it’s open – electricity isn’t coming back into the circuit. Which is why you connect the neutral to the ground. The current will go through the ground, back into the neutral, completing the short circuit and allowing the breaker to trip.
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