Never saw a more aptly named channel: Simply Put. It really is what it means: simply put. I'm always blown away by the amount of information you can pack in one short video, presenting it in a concise and perfectly clear manner. I often have to rewatch the video not because of how you explain things, but just because I have to unpack what you say and think about it thoroughly.. the result is always the same: I feel much more confident about a topic on which I had plenty of doubts and confusion about it. You are amazing!
I'm one of those you saved bro , but why didn't this video go viral ? .. you deserve it , it's very informative and cleared nearly one week of frustration on Yuotube , keep up the good work , my greetings from Egypt
Electricity in the US system does not go to the ground even in case of an equipment failure. It goes to the source i.e. the transformer through the neutral wire or the grounded conductor as it officially is called. This high current causes the breaker to trip. The actual connection to the ground is more about overvoltage protection caused for example by lightnings.
I had the exact same problem as I'm learning electronics for cars and looking at schematics. I didn't understand why there was a ground at negative. This cleared it up so much, thank you!
Thanks for the enlightenment. If I may make a recommendation, this is it: use drawings. Grounding is not as complex as it seems at first glance. However, ordinary people may get overwhelmed with a lot of talking, trying to make a picture in their minds while you continue with more and more explanations. Thanks again, and keep up the excellent work.
This helped tremendously! Had the same misconception due to working with DC circuits before attempting to try my hand at AC, seems like the two forms of power were developed separately based on all this crossover of terminology. Thank you.
Just a slight rebuttal in regards to your rant about Gnd. In AC circuits, the Neutral and Ground both connect back to the same bus in your breaker box which then both connects to the return line from the power company and to the actual ground outside your home via a rod that is driven into the ground. Also, the electrons from the power company eventually make it into your home as your home uses the electricity and it is converted into heat, light, or what ever other form of work you put it to. I read somewhere that based on current consumption, the electrons move about an inch an hour towards your house from the power generation plant. Can be slower in less populated areas, faster in more. But the average is about an inch an hour from the study I saw.
holy shit. thank you thank you thank you. it seems that by changing some terminology and methods of representation, in order to make electronics easier to understand , they made it un-understandable for some.
Thank you so much! I really need for people to make a clear distinction between neutral, ground, 0v, "the return path", common, and the negative terminal. People will say ground and mean any one of those things. I spent like a week just trying to understand the difference between these terms because people keep using them interchangeably. Also, thank you for the explanation of the "return path."
Great video, nice having someone explain in terms I understand. I am interested in DC voltage when the human body is grounded to the earth when in bare feet. I have done my own experiments, but need some help understanding the values. Hope you can help . Thanks. Pat
Helped a lot. Not a total newb with electronics and my dirty little secret is that I couldn't fully explain what ground was due to it's 100,000,000 uses/names. I knew ground in the basic sense of "the actual ground and it's for safety". That and on a board it's the reference point of 0 volts. Even that confused me in that the concept of routing to the case seemed just as dangerous to me. It still does despite knowing why it's done. A weird part of my brain just doesn't want to get it. Other terms should definitely be used.
You’re a lifesaver, man. I was looking at a battery powered DC circuit with a bunch of ground symbols and I was so confused... Turns out it just meant “reference ground” as in the negative terminal, not PROTECTIVE ground. Stupid lazy naming conventions :D Anyway, thanks a lot!
This is a great video. One problem I am finding is that no-one on the Internet seems to be able to explain how you setup an inverter system with AC and DC grounding and tying them together. Currently I am planning on connecting my inverter chassis ground to my negative DC busbar. Then also connecting an earth block busbar to the DC negative busbar. Then the earth block is going to the mains AC actual earth. This means that if for some reason there is a DC fault and the DC + touches the inverter case it will go through the inverter ground wire to the negative busbar, cause a short and blow the fuse back to the battery. If there is an AC fault it will go to the DC negative busbar, onto the earth block busbar and onto earth, causing earth leakage and tripping the RCD. I have a couple of questions... Is any of this I am saying actually correct? If so, would an AC fault blow up the DC equipment as it goes via the DC negative busbar OR does all the current just happily go straight on to the earth block I to earth without affecting the DC equipment? Side note, I plan to connect the inverter ground to the negative busbar instead of directly to the earth block simply because in a DC fault scenario the ground wire from the inverter would need to carry the full DC current and so need a really big wire which is easier to connect to the negative busbar than the earth block which can only connect AC gauge wires. Helped appreciated, because I've read so many articles on grounding mixed AC and DC systems and it's still so confusing!
Marc, have you got your answers? I’m about to start a large electrical project on my boat involving introduction of an inverter into the mix. Ground is the only thing that still confuses me. My inverter, Victron Multiplus, has an internal ground relay that bonds ac ground with neutral for the RCD to work when not on shore power. Currently I have a long, half inch copper tube running along the ship that bonds together all metal parts that touch water and also is connected to dc negative. Now my question is: should I connect ac ground to that copper tube as well? Thanks for taking interest with this…
Wired a DC only house for a rich hippie couple, the authority having jurisdiction (inspector) wanted earthed ground available at every node. These people had DC appliances... a DC fridge, range, dryer... even their AC was DC (was a running joke while we were wiring it... it means their AC unit [air conditioner] is powered by DC current)... You explained why better than the inspector and my dad (our resident Master Electrician)... Because it doesn't hurt anything and it's potentially safer in some rare circumstances... that whole house was a rare circumstance. Just say'n. But that's the simplest explanation for it I've heard yet.
Thanks for the explanation. All that ground talk in schematiks gets confusing when you start learning about that stuff. Specially when dealing with linear power supplies. I figured GND was reference to N but i wasn't sure until now.
Hi.. What could be the reason if I get a DC voltage when I checked my 24 VDC positive terminal with panel body while my breaker is OFF. I got zero voltage across the positive and negative terminals and zero voltage across positive terminal DC ground as well. But got 19VDC when I measure across positive terminal and panel body.
I bought a grounding/earthing bedsheet that needs to be plugged into the ground of the wall outlet. But my outlets are not grounded and don’t have the third prong for the ground. Can using an adapter give me the ground that I need? But the sheet doesn’t need the electric current, just the ground. I’m so confused and what to use this grounding sheet really bad. Please advise. Thanks.
So a car chassis has "infinite" resistance and or infinite electrons relative to whatever DC circuitry exists in a car? Thus it doesn't affect current unless a catastrophe happens?
...and thanks for the video. I'm trying to understand why "grounding" a separate leisure battery hooked up to a solar panel and some low current appliances would need a chassis ground.
Thanks so much for this vid, it's excellent. What I find really depressing is that why don't electronics books say this, or courses for that matter. I have found the education of electronics across the board to be shocking. You can go on courses and read books from end to end and still not know what it's actually about. I was totally confused by the ground symbols in schematics, if the wire goes back to neutral then why on earth don't they mark that and show earth ground for what it is, which as you say is just the wire going to the case. Its actually dangerous to not show the schematics correctly. I set fire to an expensive op amp, because of my ignorance about this. Also I think putting the earth ground to the case will take away any emf radiation building up, although I'm not sure.
Why do dc to ac inverters have a dc ground screw ? And what is the easiest way to ground a dc circuit without a battery ? The question is very important to me..
Is it possible that two differently modulated dc circuites would ride the same load circuit, assuming there is no potential difference (vpp), only their frequency is different? Is it not a short circuit, because there is no potential difference between them on avrage. Like two electromagnetic waves circuits feeding a single loop circuit.
Hello sir!! Thanks for the video, I'm learning more every day. I have a question if you wouldn't mind providing an answer. In my industry, we utilize large power plants to energize multiple devices in a switchroom. This device is grounded on the "case" as you stated... however this device is also grounded within its circuitry, with a very large wire from "return" bus to MGB.. what would this be utilized for? I would imagine it will transfer any unused voltages from the feed to the bus to prevent residual energy in the bus?
Hi, I recently ordered a DC to AC High Voltage Transformer but the schematics only show a HV Output and a HV Ground. What does the HV Output spark to? To the HV ground?
So GND in DC is Negative and since electron flow from negative to positive,they actually flow from GND(from schematic) to + in electron flow which is current works in real life, right?
Hey. Could you explain why there's no voltage when I connect one battery's + to another's - side? Or even one battery's + to another's +? The amount of electrons is different between them, right?
Hi. I like your presentation. Very clear even to an electrical novice like me. Do you have a website where I can send you a message? I’m building a variable speed drive for a 130 vdc 4.25 hp treadmill motor using a SCR, bridge rectifier, DC choke and I’m thinking of putting a EMI filter between the AC outlet and SCR. But I don’t know which one to use. I have a wiring diagram that I can send you if you are willing to help me. Thanks, Paul
The use of the word "ground" for use in say home wiring (where metal rods are actually physically driven into the soil aka. earth's crust, aka. the dirt aka. the physical ground makes intuitive sense, but in the context of say a DC battery where the word "ground" refers to the negative terminal makes less intuitive sense because the negative terminal has nothing at all to do with the soil aka earth's crust, aka the dirt aka the physical ground that we walk on. This seems to happen a lot in math (think of the word "root") science, engineering, and technology. We reuse words that those already knowledgeable are familiar with at the expense of those learning the subject for the first time. I appreciate your methodology of explaining "why" the naming convention is inherently bad in an effort to make the subject matter simple.
I finally understand Ground. It's a reservoir that is not full and wants more electrons, so that must mean the ground has more protons than electrons.. Except sodium with a choline mix move both direction i believe. As for positive to negative or negative to positive how can we see that visually.?
Earth is feminine and the sun (electricity) is masculine. Earth attracts the suns energy and creates what we see around us. Its the law of gender according to hermetics. I believe lightning is a short from sun to earth. I also believe the oil underground has a function in the electrical exchange between earth and sun.
The reason ground doesn’t work as a zero volt is the same reason what you’re saying is incorrect. The ground is binded to the neutral at the source, or as close as practical. The energy will return the source, NOT ground in the event of the fault. Ground pins are installed to protect from lightning, which is trying to find ground in the earth (the source).
so I have a PCB that has a signal path and a power path. the signal path has a ground on the in and out terminal, but the power doesn't. this is because it just has + and - ? also it doesn't have a ground plane, so should I just solder all the ground connects together manually? would I include the -power terminal?
This is what happens when you think about your words and say them slowly while recording, but when it comes to editing its about making information expedient
There is earth ground, chassis ground, and circuit ground, which is why I hate the word "ground" so much in this context. I wish a better word had been used.
You are brilliant, much easier explaining than most electric engineering professor.
Today I have learned the concept which I was searching from many years..thank you..
Never saw a more aptly named channel: Simply Put. It really is what it means: simply put. I'm always blown away by the amount of information you can pack in one short video, presenting it in a concise and perfectly clear manner. I often have to rewatch the video not because of how you explain things, but just because I have to unpack what you say and think about it thoroughly.. the result is always the same: I feel much more confident about a topic on which I had plenty of doubts and confusion about it. You are amazing!
What a perfect name for your channel. Being a newbie who also happens to be a boomer I need things 'Simply Put', the simpler the better.
I love this! I am an electrical engineer and this is the most confusing thing for me lol.. thank you for this video… keep doing more!! I love it!
Holy crap! Finally an explanation I understand!!! Thank you!
been fighting with this concept for years, i think your video has gotten me at least a step closer to understanding!
I'm one of those you saved bro , but why didn't this video go viral ? .. you deserve it , it's very informative and cleared nearly one week of frustration on Yuotube , keep up the good work , my greetings from Egypt
Niche audience, I guess. Useful to know for most people, but they don't know enough to search for it.
Great video. Great explanation that I've not found anyone else to explain
Electricity in the US system does not go to the ground even in case of an equipment failure. It goes to the source i.e. the transformer through the neutral wire or the grounded conductor as it officially is called. This high current causes the breaker to trip.
The actual connection to the ground is more about overvoltage protection caused for example by lightnings.
Your awesome. Thank you someone who can finally explain what's actually going on with AC and DC. This is fantastic! Thank you.
I had the exact same problem as I'm learning electronics for cars and looking at schematics. I didn't understand why there was a ground at negative. This cleared it up so much, thank you!
Simply put indeed. Great work. You have cleared the confusion.
Probably one of the most useful videos on TH-cam on the subject of grounding of electrical systems.
N1ce
Enlightening, thank you! And fun to listen to. Greetings from across the pond.
Masterful instruction sir, you deserve my professors salary ;who could not explain this even though he is being paid for it......go figuree
here I sit and laugh to myself while I learn a lot of new things. brilliant
Someone, someplace, has had their frustration saved. Thank You!
Thanks for the enlightenment. If I may make a recommendation, this is it: use drawings. Grounding is not as complex as it seems at first glance. However, ordinary people may get overwhelmed with a lot of talking, trying to make a picture in their minds while you continue with more and more explanations. Thanks again, and keep up the excellent work.
This helped tremendously! Had the same misconception due to working with DC circuits before attempting to try my hand at AC, seems like the two forms of power were developed separately based on all this crossover of terminology. Thank you.
Just a slight rebuttal in regards to your rant about Gnd. In AC circuits, the Neutral and Ground both connect back to the same bus in your breaker box which then both connects to the return line from the power company and to the actual ground outside your home via a rod that is driven into the ground.
Also, the electrons from the power company eventually make it into your home as your home uses the electricity and it is converted into heat, light, or what ever other form of work you put it to. I read somewhere that based on current consumption, the electrons move about an inch an hour towards your house from the power generation plant. Can be slower in less populated areas, faster in more. But the average is about an inch an hour from the study I saw.
holy shit. thank you thank you thank you. it seems that by changing some terminology and methods of representation, in order to make electronics easier to understand , they made it un-understandable for some.
We want teachers like you.....
Thank you. You have removed so much of my confusion. #EE student
Thank you so much! I really need for people to make a clear distinction between neutral, ground, 0v, "the return path", common, and the negative terminal. People will say ground and mean any one of those things. I spent like a week just trying to understand the difference between these terms because people keep using them interchangeably.
Also, thank you for the explanation of the "return path."
Great video, nice having someone explain in terms I understand. I am interested in DC voltage when the human body is grounded to the earth when in bare feet. I have done my own experiments, but need some help understanding the values. Hope you can help .
Thanks. Pat
Thanks for the simple and interesting explanation
Thanks for the great explanation. Earned a subscription.
This was incredibly helpful and well presented, thank you so much
Hey, this helped! Appreciate it.
Just found your channel - Excellent Content. Another sub for you sir!
Lot of love from India ❤ yess you have saved my frustration.
Thank you! Helps me understand much more!. Nice Samurai-X poster behind
Helped a lot. Not a total newb with electronics and my dirty little secret is that I couldn't fully explain what ground was due to it's 100,000,000 uses/names.
I knew ground in the basic sense of "the actual ground and it's for safety". That and on a board it's the reference point of 0 volts.
Even that confused me in that the concept of routing to the case seemed just as dangerous to me. It still does despite knowing why it's done. A weird part of my brain just doesn't want to get it.
Other terms should definitely be used.
You’re a lifesaver, man. I was looking at a battery powered DC circuit with a bunch of ground symbols and I was so confused... Turns out it just meant “reference ground” as in the negative terminal, not PROTECTIVE ground. Stupid lazy naming conventions :D Anyway, thanks a lot!
What means "reference ground" ? Can you give me an analogy?
Thanks for the simple explanations! You rock!
This is a great video.
One problem I am finding is that no-one on the Internet seems to be able to explain how you setup an inverter system with AC and DC grounding and tying them together.
Currently I am planning on connecting my inverter chassis ground to my negative DC busbar. Then also connecting an earth block busbar to the DC negative busbar. Then the earth block is going to the mains AC actual earth.
This means that if for some reason there is a DC fault and the DC + touches the inverter case it will go through the inverter ground wire to the negative busbar, cause a short and blow the fuse back to the battery.
If there is an AC fault it will go to the DC negative busbar, onto the earth block busbar and onto earth, causing earth leakage and tripping the RCD.
I have a couple of questions...
Is any of this I am saying actually correct?
If so, would an AC fault blow up the DC equipment as it goes via the DC negative busbar OR does all the current just happily go straight on to the earth block I to earth without affecting the DC equipment?
Side note, I plan to connect the inverter ground to the negative busbar instead of directly to the earth block simply because in a DC fault scenario the ground wire from the inverter would need to carry the full DC current and so need a really big wire which is easier to connect to the negative busbar than the earth block which can only connect AC gauge wires.
Helped appreciated, because I've read so many articles on grounding mixed AC and DC systems and it's still so confusing!
Marc, have you got your answers? I’m about to start a large electrical project on my boat involving introduction of an inverter into the mix. Ground is the only thing that still confuses me. My inverter, Victron Multiplus, has an internal ground relay that bonds ac ground with neutral for the RCD to work when not on shore power. Currently I have a long, half inch copper tube running along the ship that bonds together all metal parts that touch water and also is connected to dc negative.
Now my question is: should I connect ac ground to that copper tube as well?
Thanks for taking interest with this…
THANK YOU! Very informative, non pretentious and straight to the point.
Also, And I say this as a friend, I think you might need eye drops.
Wired a DC only house for a rich hippie couple, the authority having jurisdiction (inspector) wanted earthed ground available at every node. These people had DC appliances... a DC fridge, range, dryer... even their AC was DC (was a running joke while we were wiring it... it means their AC unit [air conditioner] is powered by DC current)...
You explained why better than the inspector and my dad (our resident Master Electrician)...
Because it doesn't hurt anything and it's potentially safer in some rare circumstances... that whole house was a rare circumstance. Just say'n. But that's the simplest explanation for it I've heard yet.
Thanks for the explanation. All that ground talk in schematiks gets confusing when you start learning about that stuff. Specially when dealing with linear power supplies. I figured GND was reference to N but i wasn't sure until now.
Very nice, I went from automotive eletronics diagnosis which is DC circuits to AC circuits and I was confused for the first 3 weeks
get one of those adapters, cause you don't like dying.
PREACH
Some circuits have ground in between + and - or hot and cold where ground has nothing to do with - (negative terminal).
Great video dude. Much appreciated.
This guys is feisty busy he does make sense
Thank you so much - this helped me heaps!
Good to prevent fires especially on Maui
Hi.. What could be the reason if I get a DC voltage when I checked my 24 VDC positive terminal with panel body while my breaker is OFF. I got zero voltage across the positive and negative terminals and zero voltage across positive terminal DC ground as well. But got 19VDC when I measure across positive terminal and panel body.
That was delightful, thank you!
Great... thanks for sharing!
I bought a grounding/earthing bedsheet that needs to be plugged into the ground of the wall outlet. But my outlets are not grounded and don’t have the third prong for the ground. Can using an adapter give me the ground that I need? But the sheet doesn’t need the electric current, just the ground. I’m so confused and what to use this grounding sheet really bad. Please advise. Thanks.
Do not use electric outlets for anything they are not intended for. If you get a broken neutral there can be 120 V on the ground contact.
So a car chassis has "infinite" resistance and or infinite electrons relative to whatever DC circuitry exists in a car? Thus it doesn't affect current unless a catastrophe happens?
...and thanks for the video. I'm trying to understand why "grounding" a separate leisure battery hooked up to a solar panel and some low current appliances would need a chassis ground.
Great video. The myth of DC 'Ground' still pervades circuits.
Thanks so much for this vid, it's excellent. What I find really depressing is that why don't electronics books say this, or courses for that matter. I have found the education of electronics across the board to be shocking. You can go on courses and read books from end to end and still not know what it's actually about. I was totally confused by the ground symbols in schematics, if the wire goes back to neutral then why on earth don't they mark that and show earth ground for what it is, which as you say is just the wire going to the case. Its actually dangerous to not show the schematics correctly. I set fire to an expensive op amp, because of my ignorance about this. Also I think putting the earth ground to the case will take away any emf radiation building up, although I'm not sure.
Why do dc to ac inverters have a dc ground screw ? And what is the easiest way to ground a dc circuit without a battery ? The question is very important to me..
Is it possible that two differently modulated dc circuites would ride the same load circuit, assuming there is no potential difference (vpp), only their frequency is different?
Is it not a short circuit, because there is no potential difference between them on avrage.
Like two electromagnetic waves circuits feeding a single loop circuit.
Great explanation!
Hello sir!! Thanks for the video, I'm learning more every day. I have a question if you wouldn't mind providing an answer. In my industry, we utilize large power plants to energize multiple devices in a switchroom. This device is grounded on the "case" as you stated... however this device is also grounded within its circuitry, with a very large wire from "return" bus to MGB.. what would this be utilized for? I would imagine it will transfer any unused voltages from the feed to the bus to prevent residual energy in the bus?
ah, thanks for clearing up DC ground for me once and for all! Silly world.
What if you short DC ground to Earth!?
Will it spark?
Hi, I recently ordered a DC to AC High Voltage Transformer but the schematics only show a HV Output and a HV Ground. What does the HV Output spark to? To the HV ground?
Respect and salute bro
So GND in DC is Negative and since electron flow from negative to positive,they actually flow from GND(from schematic) to + in electron flow which is current works in real life, right?
can you please explain" Single-wire earth return " in this context ?
Hey. Could you explain why there's no voltage when I connect one battery's + to another's - side? Or even one battery's + to another's +? The amount of electrons is different between them, right?
Hi. I like your presentation. Very clear even to an electrical novice like me. Do you have a website where I can send you a message? I’m building a variable speed drive for a 130 vdc 4.25 hp treadmill motor using a SCR, bridge rectifier, DC choke and I’m thinking of putting a EMI filter between the AC outlet and SCR. But I don’t know which one to use. I have a wiring diagram that I can send you if you are willing to help me.
Thanks,
Paul
If the current is not going to flow to the ground (the real one) then how does it save lives?
The use of the word "ground" for use in say home wiring (where metal rods are actually physically driven into the soil aka. earth's crust, aka. the dirt aka. the physical ground makes intuitive sense, but in the context of say a DC battery where the word "ground" refers to the negative terminal makes less intuitive sense because the negative terminal has nothing at all to do with the soil aka earth's crust, aka the dirt aka the physical ground that we walk on. This seems to happen a lot in math (think of the word "root") science, engineering, and technology. We reuse words that those already knowledgeable are familiar with at the expense of those learning the subject for the first time. I appreciate your methodology of explaining "why" the naming convention is inherently bad in an effort to make the subject matter simple.
At least now I know what grounding means , thanks
I finally understand Ground. It's a reservoir that is not full and wants more electrons, so that must mean the ground has more protons than electrons.. Except sodium with a choline mix move both direction i believe. As for positive to negative or negative to positive how can we see that visually.?
Earth is feminine and the sun (electricity) is masculine. Earth attracts the suns energy and creates what we see around us. Its the law of gender according to hermetics. I believe lightning is a short from sun to earth. I also believe the oil underground has a function in the electrical exchange between earth and sun.
And thats why we are experiencing more severe weather as oil depletes and earth becomes less insulated.
This guy is good. Where has he disappeared to?
Very helpful
Well put!
The reason ground doesn’t work as a zero volt is the same reason what you’re saying is incorrect.
The ground is binded to the neutral at the source, or as close as practical. The energy will return the source, NOT ground in the event of the fault. Ground pins are installed to protect from lightning, which is trying to find ground in the earth (the source).
Earth is fem and sun masculine. Earth creates with the suns energy. Sun is source. Lightning is a short from sun to earth.
skema rangkaian nya mr
Thanks a lot, so helpful
thanks king !
Thank you sooo much man!!
Uhhh amazing!
Thanks
so I have a PCB that has a signal path and a power path. the signal path has a ground on the in and out terminal, but the power doesn't. this is because it just has + and - ? also it doesn't have a ground plane, so should I just solder all the ground connects together manually? would I include the -power terminal?
interesting, none of this was told to me in EE school
Immediate subscribe. Thank you
Why do you put all those tiny jumps in your video?
This is what happens when you think about your words and say them slowly while recording, but when it comes to editing its about making information expedient
you literally just explained the riddle
Terminology. Earth ground
There is earth ground, chassis ground, and circuit ground, which is why I hate the word "ground" so much in this context. I wish a better word had been used.
I learn DC circuits first. I’m so confused.
are you alive??
Ac is dc? $hould be "murica all the globe
Too fast and too much editing..