Why neutral is smaller than phase?

Here the main purpose of the neutral wire is to ground the fault current in case of unbalance or harmonics. Here the neutral wire does not carry the load current. In this case, the size of the neutral wire may be less than phase wire.

What is the difference between phase wire and neutral wire?

The phase line is the one that carries current, the neutral line provides the return path to balance the flow of current, and finally earthing is purely used for safety purposes. The neutral wire is used for providing a return path for the flow of current in an AC circuit.

Why is earthing wire thin?

The main reason of giving earthing to a electrical or electronic equipment is to protect human from electrical shock. In case of short circuit the amount of current is so higher so the earthing cable size should be in higher size to withstand the current generated from the line cable.

Can you downsize the neutral?

It is possible to downsize a feeder or service neutral according to the calculations in the National Electrical Code here: 220.61 Feeder or Service Neutral Load. (A) Basic Calculation. The feeder or service neutral load shall be the maximum unbalance of the load determined by this article.

Can the neutral wire be smaller?

The neutral (grounded conductor) cannot be smaller than the required size of the GEC (per table 250.66) and is not required to be larger than the largest ungrounded conductor.

Can you downsize the neutral wire?

Why is the earth wire thick?

For Low resistance So an earth connection should have electrically low resistance compared to the remaining conductive paths. The resistance R of a conductor is inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area. Hence a thicker earth pin increases its cross-sectional area, which makes the earth pin low resistive.

Why is live wire thicker?

In case of 3-ph system : Live wire carry phase current and neutral current carry the resultant current of three phases. So obvious the live wire have thicker dia than others. In case of 1-ph system : Here both phase and neutral have same current. So both wire have same dia.