Reverse polarity

[Francofile]

Their have been some debates on camping and caravan forums recently regarding reverse polarity ie live and neutral swapped around. Please could you tell me if this is allowed for fixed wiring in houses etc, under the new regs NF C15-100.
Thank you in anticipation Bob

 

[Francofile]

The above question refers to france of course.

 

[ColJack]

no idea on the french regs..
but given that the euro plugs are not polarised or fused for that matter, how can they insist on what goes where when simply swapping the plug the other way up negates this?

 

[ericmark]

When I was more into caravans I noted there were some consumer units with a push button and neon indicator to show if polarity was swapped and if so correct by pushing one button.

Never seen on anything but caravans. Boats normally have isolation transformers so no real need.

 

[Spark123]

Bit of an awkward one as our 3 pin plugs only have a fuse in the live (phase) conductor but as the circuits are RCD protected and overcurrent protected in both the phase and neutral conductors then a fault to earth will trip the RCD and a fault between live conductors within the wiring system will trip the MCB, in both situations killing the supply.
This of course won't happen in an appliance so it could remain live even with if it seems dead.

It is always best to have the polarity the correct way around tho - those socket n see testers are a good idea.

 

[timtheenchanter]

my caravan has a green neon wired L-E and a red wired N-E, green good, red reverse polarity, none means no power or missing earth.

its common in europe to carry a reversed polarity lead (which you need to make as they cant be bought) you could get a socket tester as suggested before.

 

[Paul_C]

but given that the euro plugs are not polarised

Two-pin plugs and the German Shucko plugs are reversible, but French grounding-type plugs and sockets are polarized (with the peculiar arrangement of having an earth pin in the recessed socket which mates with a female earth receptacle on the plug.