Using earth or ground as neutral is neither safe nor legal.
Safety:
Earth or ground wire are meant to carry unwanted, or leakage current of electrical appliances in case of any fault. During abnormal conditions earth wire provides low resistance path to leakage currents and if a person touches the appliance, he remains safe as his body resistance is more than that earth wire and no current flows through his body.
Legality:
Legality:
Electricity comes to us through energy meters (EM) installed in our homes that counts the consumption of energy and we pay for what we use. And like any other electrical appliance EM also needs two wire i.e Line (L) and Neutral (N) to work. When we use earth as neutral, current does not return back to EM and thus it will not count the energy consumption. Here we are not paying though we are using.
No, you should never use a ground wire as a neutral.
Answer-2
Yes, the ground wire will function as a neutral wire and the ground wire and neutral wire are bonded together at the panelboard.
So since the ground and neutral wires are essentially the same and bonded together, why would you not use the ground wire as a neutral? Because it causes the potential for electrical shock. The big difference between the ground wire and the neutral wire is that the ground wire is always grounded at 0 volts, the neutral wire is a return path of an unbalanced load, and while its voltage is typically 0 volts, it has the potential to pass much higher voltage through it.
No, you should never use a ground wire as a neutral.
Answer-2
Yes, the ground wire will function as a neutral wire and the ground wire and neutral wire are bonded together at the panelboard.
So since the ground and neutral wires are essentially the same and bonded together, why would you not use the ground wire as a neutral? Because it causes the potential for electrical shock. The big difference between the ground wire and the neutral wire is that the ground wire is always grounded at 0 volts, the neutral wire is a return path of an unbalanced load, and while its voltage is typically 0 volts, it has the potential to pass much higher voltage through it.
If you disconnect the neutral wire you will many times read voltage on this neutral wire due to the power passing through a connected device and running to the neutral end that was just disconnected. Many electricians know of this problem and account for it, but a ground wire should never have any voltage on it, so when you connect the ground wire like it was a neutral, the return path voltage on the ground wire is completely unexpected, and it usually runs a higher ampacity since it has a connected load. This creates a very dangerous situation for an electrician working on the power system.
unexpectedly There are also other potential problems like probability for starting a fire (since ground wires are usually un-insulated), but I find these scenarios less likely than injury to an electrical professional due to an unexpected, powered ground wire.
unexpectedly There are also other potential problems like probability for starting a fire (since ground wires are usually un-insulated), but I find these scenarios less likely than injury to an electrical professional due to an unexpected, powered ground wire.