By Earthing:
PROCESS OF EARTHING AND ITS ADVANTAGES – DEFINITION
When we bring a charged body in contact with the earth, all the excess charge on the body disappears by causing a momentary current to pass to the ground through the connecting conductor (such as our body). This process of sharing the charges with the earth is callled earthing. Earthing provides a safety measure for electrical circuits and appliances. A thick metal plate or Pipe is generally buried deep in the earth connected to appliance through thick conducting wires.. These are used in buildings or installation for the purpose of earthing of Equipment, Machines, Control Panel or other objects.
The electric wiring in our houses has three wires: live, neutral and earth. The first two carry electric current from the power station and the third is earthed by connecting it to the buried metal plate/Pipe . Metallic bodies of the electric appliances such as electric iron, refrigerator, TV are connected to the earth wire. When any fault occurs or live wire touches the metallic body, the charge flows to the earth without damaging the appliance and without causing any injury to the individuals; this would have otherwise created electrical accident because body is a conductor of electricity.
Grounding:
Though both terms, Earthing and Grounding are used for similar purposes, Grounding is connected to current carrying path directly, creating system Neutral. The main live wire is connected to a power supply to power an appliance, however, the other portion of the wire is connected to earth.
| Earthing VS Grounding | |
| Earthing | Grounding |
| This method protects human beings from electric shocks. | This method protects the entire power system from malfunctioning. |
| The earth wire used is green in colour. | The wire used for grounding is black in colour |
| Earthing is primarily used to avoid shocking the humans. | Grounding is primarily used for providing Reference zero voltage helping to provide near equal voltages on all phases. |
| Earthing is located under the earth pit, connecting equipment to Zero Voltage. | It is located between the neutral of the equipment being used and the ground. |
