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	Subject - grounding question mike I have a few questions about the power coming into the home. I have heard people say that the neutral does not carry current or that it only has the current not used by a load. If it is an AC system how can this be? Doesn't it have power coming in and going out alternately? Isn't the reason that you can touch the neutral wire without a shock because it is already connected to ground and therefore creates no circuit, not because it carries no current? Can someone please clear that up for me. Scott Vickrey The grounded conductor or neutral only carries the unbalanced current. The reason that most of the time you can touch the neutral and not receive a jolt is that you are touching the grounded side of the load. You are not the path of least resitance to ground the grounded conductor or neutral is. Since it is ultimatly connected to ground. Hopefully you can see the problem here with having faith that the neutral is safe for handling. When you touch a neutral your betting heavily that there's nothing wrong with its path to ground. --Never be the path of least resistance!-- mike Thank you, but could you please elaborate on what you mean by unbalanced current? I am a little confused on this issue. Scott Vickrey Sure Mike, Unbalanced current equals the difference of current on each ungrounded current carring conductor (or hot wire as we like to call them). On a typical houshold residential service. If you where to read the current on the first hot wire lets say it's 80 amps, and the current on the second was 100 amps. You should now beable to figure the current on the neutral by subtracting the smaller from the larger. In this case the neutral should be 20amps. Hope that helps. mike Thank you. electrofried Just for safety never come between the neutral and ground with a load on it.(Its worse than a shock from the hot wire) just my .02 cents manish songara [quote]Originally posted by mike I have a few questions about the power coming into the home. I have heard people say that the neutral does not carry current or that it only has the current not used by a load. If it is an AC system how can this be? Doesn't it have power coming in and going out alternately? Isn't the reason that you can touch the neutral wire without a shock because it is already connected to ground and therefore creates no circuit, not because it carries no current? Can someone please clear that up for me. manish songara neutral in ac supply system for house hold wiring do carry current as it is return path for single phase a.c. supply system.we do get shock by touching the neutral wire if the neutral is not grounded as the current will follow least resistance path through our body .