Reversed polarity

[Shannock]

To save bothering John, what is the position with plugging in a charger in France. We will be taking our kit fitted tandem at the end of the month there and I have read that the french wiring can at times be reversed polarity.
I suppose I can take my multimeter to check and if neccesary alter the charger plug but is this neccesary

Pete

 

[dingrpdl]

To save bothering John, what is the position with plugging in a charger in France. We will be taking our kit fitted tandem at the end of the month there and I have read that the french wiring can at times be reversed polarity.


Pete

Do you mean plugging in a charger into an AC mains outlet? With AC, polarity does not matter.

Richard

 

[oigoi]

If your charger does not have an earth wire (most dont), just a live and a neutral, it cannot make any difference to it if the live and neutral are the other way around. The mains voltage is ac and will flow into the charger in exactly the same fashion as it would in the uk.

the only time I could see that the the polarity being different could cause a problem would be if it was an appliance that was earthed - often at some point in a buildings mains wiring the neutral and earth are commoned together, and the polarity being different could affect the way current flowed back to earth in the event of a fault

 

[Shannock]

Thanks for the replies but bear with me, if I touch the AC supply in this country the black (blue) will not give me a shock but the red (brown) will, so not really understanding how the transformer part works dos'nt the current go opposite.

Pete

 

[neptune]

@Shannock. AC stands for alternating current . This means that current flows in one direction, and then stops and flows in the other direction. It reverses direction 100 times per second, so it does one complete cycle every one fiftieth of a second. [50 Hertz means fifty cycles per second.]

 

[flecc]

And adding to what Neptune has posted above, at one stage the AC current is rectified in the charger to DC current for your battery. The diodes that do that only work in one direction, so regardless of what goes in, what comes out can only be in the correct polarity.

 

[oigoi]

Thanks for the replies but bear with me, if I touch the AC supply in this country the black (blue) will not give me a shock but the red (brown) will, so not really understanding how the transformer part works dos'nt the current go opposite.

Pete

The reason touching the blue in this country does not give you a shock (not always true, by the way dont rely on it) is for the reason I outlined above, that in this country the neutral and the earth are connected together within the building's supply. Therefore then you touch the blue wire there is no voltage difference between you and earth and you do not get a shock.

To expand on neptune's explanation a bit, the mains electricity is ac. alternating current. what this meas is that , for a fraction of a second,the electricity comes out of the brown wire, through the appliance, and completes the circuit by going back through the blue wire.
Then the flow of electricity goes the other way, out of the blue wire, through the appliance, and back down the brown wire.

So can you see that because the flow of the electricity is bidirectional unlike dc which is unidirectional it does not make any difference to the transformer which way around the live and neutral are.

This cycle repeats itself 50 times every second

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Pete,

Just for a bit of reassurance, your charger is used worldwide, the only time you need to be careful is in countries where the voltage is different e.g. USA, Canada, Japan etc.

If that were the case the red slide switch next to the on/off switch would need to be moved from the 230v setting to 115v.

For Europe where the voltage is 220-240, no adjustment is required, the only thing you need is a travel adapter.

I hope you, the 'stoker' and tandem have pleasant trip to France

 

[Shannock]

Thank you everybody, you have put my mind at rest.

Yes, stocked up on adapters, John.

Pete