Fuse on hot wire seems to make for bad lead dressing

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donvan
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Location: Dallas

Fuse on hot wire seems to make for bad lead dressing

Post by donvan »

Now that we are eliminating the ground switch people tend to wire the hot (black) wire to the fuse then to the on/off switch. What I don't like about this method is that the lead dressing ends up having the untwisted AC wire going from AC power entry to the fuse then to the on/off switch.

If one puts the fuse on the neutral (white wire) and the on/off switch on the hot black wire then you can twist those two wires from the AC power entry to the fuse and switch and then connect those wires to the twisted power transformer.

Is there anything wrong with putting the fuse on the neutral white wire?
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pompeiisneaks
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Re: Fuse on hot wire seems to make for bad lead dressing

Post by pompeiisneaks »

I think the reason it's more dangerous is that since it's technically at the 'end' of the ac loop, if it goes out, and there somehow is a route to earth still through live, it can keep going/cooking, unless on GFCI. OTOH if the live is fused, and it goes out, you've cut it at the entry point.

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Charlie Wilson
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Re: Fuse on hot wire seems to make for bad lead dressing

Post by Charlie Wilson »

This one of those things that I don't mess around with. The AC hot goes to the center of the fuse holder first, then the switch. The neutral line goes to the other transformer primary. If somehow the hot side shorted to the chassis and the fuse was on the neutral side, the fuse would blow but you still would have 120v sitting on the chassis ready to zap someone.
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dbeasley
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Re: Fuse on hot wire seems to make for bad lead dressing

Post by dbeasley »

I believe modern CE/UL regs require the hot to be fused.

And it doesn't hurt to use a DPDT toggle and turn on/off both the hot and cold legs of the incoming AC either.

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donvan
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Re: Fuse on hot wire seems to make for bad lead dressing

Post by donvan »

Thanks for all the good input. I will keep the fuse and the switch on the hot side.
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