Is the black wire in a plug live or neutral?

Answer 1

Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.The BLACK wire is the "hot" or "live", WHITE is the neutral and the BARE or GREEN wire is the safety ground wire.

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Usually, it is the black wire. But it may be better to say that the white wire does not go on the 'hot' side. In 3-way switches, oven plugs, and so forth, a red wire can be 'hot'.

By the way, in AC, which is what your plugs are, there is no positive and negative side. That only happens in DC . . . things operated from a battery.

Also, just to be safe, the 'hot' side on a convenience outlet is connected to the smaller of the two holes.

Also, just to cover the bases, sometimes a white wire must be used on the 'hot' side, but it is supposed to be wrapped with black electrical tape to show you that it is 'hot'.

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For AC connections, there is no such thing as "positive". The convention there is that the "neutral" wire is white, the ground wire is green, and the "live" or "hot" wire is ... whatever isn't white or green (usually black in a two or three wire situation, but in multiphase or industrial wiring where it's important to be able to distinguish what circuit a given wire belongs to, red, blue, and brown are also often frequently used).

For DC connections, such as are used in vehicles and electronic battery powered equipment, the color conventions are that red is usually positive and black is usually negative.

Wiring a duplex receptacle

Looking at the duplex receptacle from the front side directly on, you should see a larger blade hole (silver) on the left, smaller (brass) blade hole on the right and a U shaped ground blade on the bottom. The white wire connects under the left (silver) coloured screw, the black wire connects under the right (brass) coloured screw and the green wire under the green ground screw.

Answer for countries in Europe and other world areas running a 230 volt 50 Hz supply service.The BROWN wire is the "hot" or "live", BLUE is the neutral and the GREEN/YELLOW wire is the "earth" / "safety ground" wire.

(In the UK, if your socket outlets are wired with the old Black, Red and Green/Yellow wires (as were used until 2006) RED is the live wire and BLACK is the neutral in the socket outlet but the BROWN wire is still the "live" wire in the plug on the flexible cord to your appliance.)

If in doubt, please leave it to the professionals for your own safety!

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As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

Answer 2

Black, white and green or bare when in a cable set. Green being the ground wire. Black (hot) and white (neutral).

Answer

The above answer refers to North American conductors. In Europe, the colours are as follows:

• line conductor -brown
• neutral conductor -blue
• earth conductor -green/yellow stripe

Answer 3

Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.

In the US the black wire in a plug is the "hot" conductor. The neutral is white. In most of Europe and Australasia on old or fixed house wiring the black is neutral.

Answer 4

It depends on the type of the plug and what voltage is applied to it. The common household plug had three wires to it. Black for "hot", white for neutral and green for ground. For a receptacle it is black, white and bare for ground from the cable set.

Answer 5

Black is HOT and white is Neutral. Neutral is bonded to ground at main panel.

Answer 6

Black wire to the gold screw terminal, white wire to the silver screw terminal and green wire to the green screw terminal.

Answer 7

black