Is it bad to switch the hot and neutral polarity in AC?

[jackieAZ]

I'm putting this here because I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that people knowledgeable about power supplies are more likely to have more of an electrical background, not that it technically matters. Anyways, I was shitposting on a discord server with other electrical majors like myself, and we came to the discussion of how changing the phase of an AC would affect the device it's supplying. So, I understand that swapping AC poles just changes phase, right, so with that in mind, how would that mismatched phase affect, say, a power supply? hey look this post isn't completely irrelevant to the category after all ;)))

 

EDIT: is->isn't lol freudian slip

[Electronics Wizardy]

Switching neutral and hot won't matter for a normal computer power supply. You can test if you want. Things like lamps and phone chargers don't have polizared plugs and work fine either way.

 

But neutral is connected to ground. And the neutral/hot makes a difference if using both phases in a normal us home(like for a dryer or oven).

[HanZie82]

Like pluggin the plug in the socket upside down.
Our sockets here can be plugged in upside down thus changing over the live and neutral.
So i would think most likely possible.

[manikyath]

functionally it doesnt matter, but for the sake of safety it does.

essentially, when wiring a switch on mains, you always want to break the live wire. if a sloppy technician along the way swaps wires and your switch now breaks the neutral, whatever you just turned off still has mains voltage supplied to it. 

 

so yes... you can switch it without affecting the functionality of devices, but no, you should NEVER EVER swap them around in a house installation.