Needless to say, an electrician does not tolerate mistakes, even the smallest ones. If you are faced with the task of replacing the outlet or switch on your own, you need to carefully prepare for this action. Any error is capable of provoking a breakdown of the entire system, and poses a threat to your health.
Newbies who are not versed in electrics make a number of mistakes:
- 1. They make a twist from different wires: aluminum and copper.
- 2. Open the wrong wire with the switch.
- 3. Contact is not secured well enough.
And there are a lot of such mistakes, and they can have catastrophic consequences. The most serious thing is a fire in the apartment and a strong electric shock.
In order to save newcomers from at least one significant mistake, I decided to raise the topic of switches and wires that they should open. As a rule, a Russian person does everything at random. How it happened - and it happened. And if the problem did not immediately make itself felt, it does not mean that this will not happen soon.
Where should the switch be located?
I note right away that the information below was not invented by me. There are some regulations and rules that describe the sequence for installing the switches. But how often do we read and heed the rules? Unfortunately, not often.
You need to remember one truth: the switch opens the phase and nothing but the phase.
It is not for nothing that the maximum number of amperes that they can withstand are applied to the switches.
Therefore, they only open the phase. Electricity flows through the phase wire, but zero is not energized.
What will be your sequence of actions when repairing a cartridge? First, you need to de-energize the cartridge. It is best to lower the switch to de-energize the entire apartment. When the switch is installed correctly, i.e. opens the phase, then you can get into the cartridge, nothing bad will happen.
How to connect the switch is not necessary
I will repeat once again so that you understand for sure that the switch can and should be installed on the wire through which the current flows, i.e. on the phase. If the switch is set differently, then when you try to repair the cartridge, you will take on a strong current.
And even if you just decide to change the light bulb, you will be “rotten”. With damaged insulation, even the chandelier will be energized, which means that you cannot touch it.
If a person touches an energized object, he himself will become a conductor. By the way, the regulations state that the lighting groups should not be subjected to any type of differential protection.
If the switch opens the neutral wire, then the lamps can glow even in the inactive state. This is especially true for LEDs. I personally encountered such a situation, and therefore I know what I am talking about.
And there seem to be a lot of words in the article, and they don't seem to be very important. But I highly recommend listening to them!
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