The harms of switching hot and neutral wires?

What country are you in?

I'm in the USA, the lamps are probably made in China. My wiring is typical black - hot, white neutral. It's the lamp's wiring I'm concerned about. (all of the lamps and my wiring have green/yellow as ground)

What I need to know is what the consequences might be if the LED lamp is wired with the hot and neutral wires hooked up backwards.

Thanks.

In all the countries where blue and brown are permitted wiring colours/colors, blue is neutral, and brown is live/phase/hot. In addition, where there is a protective ground a green or green/yellow striped sleeve may be found. That is the international standard. In the US, you should find a white or gray/grey neutral, and any other color/colour as single phase "hot". It is a common misconception that "hot" conductor color-coding is required by the National Electrical Code (NEC). Nowhere is blue live and brown neutral. I am thinking the Chinese lamp makers have made an error. The lamps should still light whichever way around you connect them. If there is a terminal on the lamp marked L or Live then connect the wire you know to be live to it, and likewise for N or Neutral. Also if they are controlled by single pole switches make sure the switches interrupt the live feed.

'Pends, Seal. Let's suppose they'v 3-prong: It gets chancy but let's suppose ur big prong does go into its female counterpart [pun intended], which really gets grounded good. Then if threads short to frame there'll be a big bang n' bloe fuse

However, f'sa 2-prong plug, then if such a short occurs, then f'ya grab the frame we left hand w/something grounded in right [f'rinstance a radiator knob], then POOF you're dead

Except you'd be breaking code by using a 2 wire connection with a metal-framed appliance, and the POOF! mishap could occur whichever way you connected live and neutral.

Well now Cen don' quite 'gree: F't's hooked up right and you get the short I'd 'scribed, then probly he'd be okay 'cause neut'sd usu purty close in pot to gnd

Oh software fellas, 'neut' means 'neutral, not 'nut.' I'd 'splain but I know you wouldn't 'stand....

[We fwd gratuitously to GardenBuddies 'cuse this very principle so critically applies also to plug-in gardening, where the lack of a good ground can kill ya in so many so int'r'stin' ways !!]

Yes, that's what I'd expect and what all the other manufacturers stated in their instructions. To add 1 more thing to the original post I measured the ohms between both purple and brown wires and a screw going into the casing. It seems neither wire is connected to the casing. There is no switch.

My wires are USA standard. For the other lamps it was easy to connect my hot to theirs and neutral to neutral, ground to ground.

For this one the instructions are backward from the international standard (concerning the blue and brown wires). I don't know if the instructions are wrong or if the light is wired backwards.

The question is

What can go wrong if I wire it incorrectly with ground being right but hot and neutral reversed?

In general appliances don't care which way around live and neutral are. I don't think anything will go wrong. Here in Britain, on 240v, we use a 2-pole 'bayonet mount' for most light bulbs, including LED and CFL, and when you insert the bulb in the holder it's 50-50 which way around it's going to be connected. Either way the lamps light. (If the lampholder is metal it must be grounded, and so the exterior of the bulb base is never live).



My LED strips under my kitchen cupboard have non-polarized "figure 8" connectors for the AC and they don't care which way around live & neutral are either.



A quick question - is this the story: the lamps have terminals marked L and N, but the instruction leaflet says Live is blue, and Neutral is brown?

If this is the story, and you just have mistakenly written instructions, you just need to connect the wire you know to be Live to the terminal marked L or Live, and the wire you know to be neutral to the terminal marked N.

I'd thot I'd 'splained, Harb, but don' blame ya for not readin't

Oh Seal, like I said, don' blame ya: I din't even mention what country I'm in

Cen: Yo rilly do good work !! Wish I wuz that gud'tit

Betcha hate awfulp'ns like that'n'--an' this'n' too

An' Seal: Rilly, I been 'cuted more'n once !!