cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/28693796
Check the comments of the original post for the stupidity.
For those of you without an electrical background, the diagram shows the protective earth connected directly to phase, with phase and neutral also joined.
Correctly wired, this would be a three pin plug, with the earth wire connected to the earth pin in the plug, with the other end connected to the metal casing of the appliance. This is a critical safety feature, which will cause the circuit protection to trip in the event a phase wire contacts the metal of whatever this is connected to.
If this was actually done, the most likely outcome is it would trip a circuit breaker, but if the neutral was broken, it would connect phase directly to the casing, and likely electrocute someone.
Or explode the plug in someone’s hand, depending on the circuit breaker and the wire gauge
On a domestic plug the chances of injury are low, but not zero. It would definitely damage both the plug and socket, possibly burn your hand, and definitely be an exciting moment.
Would you even be able to plug the damn thing in? I’ve assembled plugs before and I don’t think this would work, like at all. One wouldn’t even be able to reach the point of failure, typically when you buy plugs to wire up like this just have spots for you to screw in your wires, also I don’t think any country has that specific two vertically oriented connector setup.
Apparently not. I’m not familiar with north America plugs, but apparently this isn’t right either.
I’ve had a cheapo electric kettle plug explode in my hand due to melted contacts in the base touching each other (I’m not sure why the plug exploded and not the base, probably a shitty connection in the plug). I didn’t get injured but it was indeed quite exciting.
I had a cheapo Chinese charger explode in the socket. It was indeed quite exciting.
If done that way, it wouldn’t even fit into a socket. Prongs are rotated 90°
Huh, yeah, you are right. I’m not from the US so it didn’t immediately jump out at me