how easy an accident can happen

Oooooops...........!

How lucky you were not to cut into the brown wire!!! Had you done so the whole van would have been at mains voltage.

Provided all the wiring is done correctly, the green wire and the blue wire should be at ground potential and the full mains voltage is on the brown wire. Always best to disconnect unused cable by unplugging at the supply end. Turn off the switch but don't rely on it to turn off the power, always unplug!!!. Otherwise it mightn't be a happy Christmas for loved ones.

Cheers

John

John is quite right, but there can be a bit more to it.

If the lead is, or rather had been, connected to an appliance and the Blue lead became cut, then the section of Blue lead still attached to the appliance could effectively become alive via the load and possibly cause the cutting device, e.g. the caravan leg and thus the whole van to become alive.

Do not consider only the Brown (or Red) conductor to be the only "live" wire. Under the wiring code ALL conductors other than Earth are defined as "Live". Even though the Blue is defined as "Neutral" it is still classed as a "Live" conductor.

With luck the installation supplying the cable to the van was equipped with a RCD Safety Switch and would have protected you, but good practice is to not rely only on that.

Like snakes, 240 volts is bitey and can kill you!

unfortunately the word neutral can mislead the un itiated...blue or black can be live and should be treated as such all times..power has to form a circuit...power in through active (red or brown ) and out through neutral...if the neutral is looped in with other neutrals as they can be then anything else energised at the time that has its neutral looped into the neutral to your end can cause it to be alive...you should not even consider the earth (green or green and yellow stripes ) to be safe just incase someone in_experienced has performed some alterations which seems to happen a lot these days...my father died from electrocution when I was 5 years old because he tried to think he knew how it worked and to save money..I used to go crazy at the young blokes working with me if they rolled up the leads towards the power outlet...you never know if they have been damaged in the mean time but you will know when you grab it as you are folding it up...bad bad habit to not roll from the power point end.....best solution of all is to just isolate and not drape them over objects or over the ground

240 volts hurts, i lived but it was a touch unpleasant
Nick

I work with cabling for a living..sound and lighting contractor....I have something like 60 extension cords.

Two things I do but others take for granted.

Always roll up a lead from the supply end.......

Always route you cables so they are not thru stuff and away from folding structures.

I have had lost of blokes look at me funny when I insist that cables are not run thru stage frames or between the struts of stands.

And metal doors.....eew

AND it is worth remembering that lots of our electrical procedures and regulations are written with the expectation that one or more parts in the situation is wrong or faulty.

And those who know work with that expectation.

When we get away from a permanently installed electrical situation in a building we have to get a hell of a lot more carefull.

cheers

cheers

To be safe as possible you can put a double adapter style RCD "residual current device" in the circuit and always have it on the leads end where you plug into power. That way if any problem is created by acts unknown the RCD will instantly look at the in and out power going down the lead to the van and cut off supply as it is designed to do. Cost is approx $35 I think. A good life insurance policy. Far better than AMP cos its the amps which will kill you.

Ross