The main difference between earthing and grounding is that – Under Earthing, the circuit is physically connected to the ground to flow circulating current or fault current of the circuit to the protection of the system, Under Grounding, the circuit is physically connected to the ground to discharge the electrical energy to earth for protecting human or device safety.
What is Earthing?
Earthing is used for the connection of the neutral wire to the ground in AC circuit. By earthing of neutral, it can protect the system during the phase to the earth fault condition.
As shown in the figure, during the phase to earth fault condition, the fault current can pass to the earthing of neutral. By detecting the fault current in the protection relay, the system can be isolated. Earthing plays a very important role in power system protection and stability. The connection of earthing is designed in a way that can handle the maximum fault current of the system to identify and isolation of the fault.
What is Grounding?
Grounding is mainly used in all electrical and electronic devices. The frame or outer body of the device is connected to the ground to discharge the electrical energy. During high voltage or internal fault conditions of the devices, the voltage can be extended to the outer body of the devices. It is very unsafe for human protection, by grounding the device, the voltage or surge can be discharged and it will protect the operators.
The key difference between Earthing and Grounding | Earthing vs Grounding
- Earthing is required for the protection of AC system during the Phase to ground fault and Grounding is required for discharging the surge voltage of the electrical or electronics device to protect the operator.
- The color code of earthing is Black and the color code for grounding is Green
- A heavy-duty earth pit is used for earthing and normal pipe earthing is used for grounding.
- Mainly neutral earthing is used in generators and transformers and Grounding is used for all electronics and electrical devices.
