Isolation

Need for isolation

Safety of human beings & Protection of equipment
Isolation is often required to prevent operator contact with dangerous voltages.
If the only stuff on the low-voltage side is inaccessible electronics, then non-isolated supplies are
fine - they tend to much be cheaper/simpler than isolated supplies, and lots of household
equipment uses them.
If a human being or 3rd party piece of equipment needs to interconnect with the low-voltage side
of your design, then an isolated supply both gives you a clear barrier across which dangerous
voltages won't pass, even in the case of component failure, and it means your circuit is now
'floating' relative to the mains. I
Power isolation transformers increase the safety of a device, so that a person touching a live
portion of the circuit will not have current flow through them to earth
Earthing of electrical systems is required for a number of reasons, principally to ensure the safety
of people near the system and to prevent damage to the system itself in the event of a fault.
 The ground loop in a nutshell is what happens
when two separate devices (A and B) are
connected to ground separately, and then also
Ground loop connected to each other through some kind of
communication cable with a ground, creating a
loop. This provides two separate paths to ground
(B can go through its own connection to ground or
it can go through the ground of the cable to A and
then to As ground), and means that current may
start flowing in unanticipated ways.
 Many uses of isolation(ground loop,safety, reduces interference, surge
protection, protection to sensitive equipment)
Only few requirements might be relevant for each application, that is
why in articles one or two uses get emphasised
Earthing is good for chassis protection but not terminals
Earthing is bad for terminals protection
Electrical engineers rely on earthing for chassis protection and doesnt
make the mistake of stupidly touching terminals eg: iron box
Electronic engineers are so used to touching terminals and chassis,
hence isolation is the only way to ensure protection.
Eg: mobile charger
Neither earthing nor isolation: table fan