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Old 09-20-2016, 12:29 PM   #54
rwidman
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City: North Charleston, SC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sdowney717 View Post
However, connecting a neon or LED permanently from hot to ground and the light lights up does not tell you if that ground can carry any significant current. You could have a very high resistance in the ground wire that will light the bulb just fine, but not function as a safety ground, so a false sense of security that the ground is a good ground.

And ground is never supposed to carry any currents in normal operation.
That's a valid point but in practice there's a limit to what testing we can do each time we pull into a new marina. If we were to impress a full 120 volts on the ground conductor as a test, it could damage other boats on the same circuit and injure or kill anyone who happens to be working on the equipment. The neon lamp provides the same level of testing as the $10 outlet testers from the home center.

Agreed, the ground conductor is not supposed to carry current, it's only there for safety.
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