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I have a portable power socket that accepts two 2 pin power plugs and 1 pin 3 pin grounded power plug. There is a hole on one side of this portable power socket where the wire goes into. Oddly this power socket only exposes two ports for the wire to connect to. No ground port. Hence I am forced to use a two core wire.

I also have a 3 pin power plug to connect the whole contraption to external power. My question is can I get away with using a two pin if I connect the neutral of the two core wire to both the ground and neutral of the 3 pin power plug?

This is basically for extending a power outlet for a refrigerator since there is no power socket near it.

AllwinP
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    Please read the guidelines for posting before posting http://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask http://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic – Voltage Spike Jul 21 '16 at 17:11
  • My bad. I did do a rudimentary search but I must have messed up the keywords or something because I didn't find any quite like this one. – AllwinP Jul 22 '16 at 16:39

2 Answers2

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schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Figure 1. Illegal earth to neutral connection on an appliance. A break in the neutral wire will cause the appliance chassis to go live.

Your question shows a dangerous lack of understanding of the principles of earthing. As shown in Figure 1, your proposal exposes the user to lethal electric shock of the neutral connection breaks anywhere between your 2-pin socket and the local supply transformer neutral. Voltage will be applied via the motor and your neutral to earth connection to the chassis. In addition, if the neutral voltage is higher than ground for any reason - due to high currents in other circuits, for example - the fridge chassis will also have this potential.

My question is can I get away with using a two pin ...

"Get away with"? No.

Transistor
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  • I wish I felt I could cross reference to my recent answer, nevertheless... – Andy aka Jul 21 '16 at 17:51
  • Wasnt exactly what I had in mind (more like leave the fridge ground floating and connecting fridge neutral to the ground pin directly) but I see this is not much better than just ignoring the ground connection altogether. – AllwinP Jul 22 '16 at 16:47
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DO NOT EVER connect the Neutral and Safety Grounds together!

I assume that the refrigerator has a three-pin plug. If so, purchase a three-conductor extension cord, or a three-pin female receptacle to use in place of your present two-wire receptacle. Suitable three-pin receptacles should be readily available at any hardware or home improvement store.

Peter Bennett
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