What does a neutral do?
In: 150
So there’s something called a transformer outside your house, they often look like garbage cans at the top of poles or weird, humming boxes on the ground. Those take the high voltage from the wires that bring power from the station and convert it into something reasonably safe to have in your home, lowering the voltage.
You have two wires that are “hot” coming from the transformer and they, in Ontario at least, have a voltage difference of 240 volts. One could be considered to be +120 and the other -120, for a total difference of 240.
But you don’t need 240 volts to power most things in a house. It creates an unnecessary risk of death or serious injury.
And thats what the neutral is for. It’s connected in the middle of the transformer and has a value of 0. If you connect one of these hot lines to the neutral wire, you have a voltage of 120, which is relatively unlikely to kill someone.
But if you do have something really energy intensive, like an air conditioner, you can connect it to both the hot wires and get a bit of extra power. And that’s reasonably safe because people are less likely to mess around with an a/c unit than change a light fixture.
And the wires also switch which is positive and negative really quickly, tho that’s not directly relevant to the question
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