[RE-wrenches] Fwd: Grounding on a glacier??

[toddcory at finestplanet.com]

 Re: [RE-wrenches] Fwd: Grounding on aglacier
My understanding is that it saves cost to ground one of theconductors.  Then you can use single pole switches, fuses andbreakers.  If both of the circuit conductors are 'hot' then youwill need to use double pole everywhere.

Why? A single pole switch will stop the current regardless of whether one of the conductors is referenced to ground or not.


You can test whether the neutral is grounded quite easily with amultimeter.  I believe that everyone does ground it. Everywhere that I ask it turns out that it's been grounded.  Herewe lately have a new wiring system called Protective Multiple Earthingwhere the ground and neutral are combined into one wire (saving oncost).  This has the interesting side effect that the whole housewill become 'hot' in the event of a failure of this oneconductor.
And here, if you lose the ground/neutral, you have 240v on 120 circuits.

Todd
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