Title, really. I recently had to reverse the polarity of a badly installed receptacle. I read that the current will work either way but I could shock myself on the light bulb socket, for instance, if the receptacle has its hot and neutral reversed. But why any of this matters when the current is constantly changing direction anyway? Why is the neutral “safe” ?
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in north america we use split phase alternating current to get 110v. this is used for low draw appliances and lighting, etc. this is supplied by one hot and one neutral wire.
the full phase gives 220v and is used for high draw appliances like the stove, clothes dryer, heater/hot water, air conditioning, electric car charging, etc. this requires two hot wires (of opposing phase) to be run to the appliance.
inside the panel are two hot supply lines, red and black. the neutral is white, and ground is bare or green. red+white makes up 110v. black+white also has 110v but is opposite phase. red+black gives 220v.
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