Why should Electrical Appliances be grounded?
If the power cable of your appliance has three pins in the plug pin end and it fits the power point then it indicates that your house has electrical grounding system. If there is an electrical ground system present in your house, then the plug pin can have a suitable socket. The third pin is used for grounding the electric power which means the connection of the extra pin to the ground. Connecting the electrical appliance to the ground is safe for the appliance to be operated without any problem.
If any appliance is faulty in its functioning, the user might experience an electric shock in case the appliance is not grounded. When there is extensive thundering and lightning, the appliance will have no harm if it is grounded. Grounding of the appliance will lead to absorption of unbalanced electric charges by the earth as earth is also part of that particular electric circuit. If the electric appliance is grounded, the excess electric current will pass into the earth and will cause the fuse to break the circuit. The grounding wire is in fact a conductor that protects the user. Though the wire is separate and does nothing usually, when there is a contact between this neutral wire and the hot wire, the earth wire will protect us from the drastic effects of the electricity.
The earth wire that is grounded will trigger a safety device called Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor (GFCI) to start working. If this device finds that small current is flowing through the earth wire then it is supposed to cut the power supply to the appliance. Other devices like residual current detector will detect the small changes in the current that flows between the hot wire and earth wire. This will cause the circuit to trip when there is any fault with the appliance. If the appliance is damaged, then the current might leak into the user or through the earth wire and reaches the earth.
Hence, if the electrical appliance is grounded, then the current will not pass through the user but, passes through the earth wire to the ground.
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