Neutral

Wilson12 · Nov 21, 2015

If the neutral carries the current back to Complete the circuit.
Does that make it just as much a live wire as the line? To be shocked from

Darkwood · Nov 21, 2015

Yes and no, the N is grounded at source so their should be no potential difference between N and Earth, this means touching the N doesn't usually lead to a shock, but under fault conditions like a break in the N you may give a return path to earth to complete the circuit, always treat it as potentially dangerous just as you would the phase conductor.

Leesparkykent · Nov 21, 2015

current will reverse 50 x a second. Neutral is bonded to earth at points on the DNO network so neutral will remain at or will be very close to earth potential, for this reason that's why you wouldn't normally receive a shock from neutral. However a circuit with an open neutral could give you a very nasty/fatal shock as you would be providing the route to earth.

Edit: posted same time as Darkwood

Simonslimline · Nov 21, 2015

Definitions Part 2 of BS7671 - Live part.

A conductor or conductive part intended to be energised in normal use, including a neutral conductor but, by convention, not a PEN conductor.

Say for instance you have a 3 phase 4 wire system, AC, the number of live conductors is four, however the number of Line conductors is three.

Marvo · Nov 21, 2015

Wilson12 said:
If the neutral carries the current back to Complete the circuit.
Does that make it just as much a live wire as the line? To be shocked from

When deciding if something will give you a shock you've got to think about what the voltage is between the 2 points or the voltage of one point with respect to the voltage at another point.

If a bird is sitting on a live overhead wire it doesn't get killed because it's sitting in a zone where there's no other points at a different voltage. If one day it did manage to touch an earth or neutral it would receive a fatal shock. In most electrical areas we go to great lengths to create a zone that's at the same voltage as earth and because of this you will receive a shock from any wire or item that is at an elevated voltage with respect to earth (wrt 0V).

The amount of current flowing through a wire is not an indication of its ability to give you a shock. You can get a shock from a live wire that has no load on it and zero Amps flowing through it.