Clarification on USA power
Quote:
Originally Posted by
old kodger
Hi folks,
I'm in Australia and I downloaded David's converter plans, unaware that in the States you have what is called high single phase.
Now my comprehension of that, from an Aussie point of view, is that you actually have two 120 volt phases and neutral return giving you 220 volts across the two phases.
In Australia we have 220volt single phase BUT it's only one hot line and one neutral return and the neutral is bonded to earth.
I've been in discussion with David over this and he was not aware of this situation, when this was made clear, he agreed that his design would not work in areas with this configuration of grid supply, and suggested that I post this information on the forum as a "heads up" to others contemplating building this design.
It's a bit of a sod that this exists because I've got several three phase bits of equipment and only a single phase supply (we recently moved house).
Best of Luck to all,
Rob.
Clarification
Actually here in the States we do not refer to this as two phases, its just single phase... Its 208-240 VAC depending on the transformer providing the service to the customer... Both Residential and Industrial the single phase is provided with a center tap off the transformer, this leads to 120 vac legs, that are hot with respect to neutral. Neutral is also earth ground at both the transformer pole and at the circuit breaker load center... But the hot legs are always opposite polarity to each other so they have a maximum voltage of 208-240 vac when connected across the two hot legs of the transformer secondary output... The neutral wire or center tap, carry's current based on the loading in each hot leg, if one hot leg is carrying more current than the other, this will cause a flow of current in the neutral or center tap wire.
Sincerely,
Ron