The above wiring scheme is what saves many a European’s frustration with certain small appliances that are not available in NA.
The savvy user wires a special transition harness - making absolutely sure “things” are properly grounded - and gets to use all the “Stuff” from EU. Always keeping in mind that there could be premature failure due to the 60Hz here in NA.
The rule of thumb is: “Lets hope it lasts long enough for the NA market being served/supplied with the same nifty gadget” [;)][:)][;)]
Hadn’t thought about that, HJ, and as long as everything is insulated or isolated and fingers crossed to ward off failures, it should work. Would hate to replace a 220 volt bulb on a EU setup over here, though.
Yes well when you get into three phase power as we have it here in Australia, you have 240 V to neutral and 415 V between each phase. If you have a star configuration you have a neutral but in delta you do not have a neutral.
When I was in supplying fluorescent ballsts; sometimes in a big building in the city the phases would get out of balance when the building was first being set up and you would get hellish current in a very small neutral conductor that really should not have much going through it at all.
Then as buildings got bigger and bigger and more and more fluorescent lighting was used a new thing (back in the sixties new) called harmonic distortion which only seemed to affect the odd harmonics ie 3, 5 and for some reson particularly 7. Horrific neutral currents also occured under these circumstances as well. It seems the worse the ballast the better the harmonic distortion was.
So I can see that the American system of only having two phases each of 115 V must have its drawbacks.
The main thinhg I wanted to discuss was upping the frequqency I’m sure it will have benefits not just to do with flicker which mainly affects your perifery vision anyway.
Dunno as I’d go along with that! I have 20kw emerg generator that exercises about an hour each week. because of computers and other electronics being able to tolerate over frequency better than underfrequency it came from factory set at 68 cycles and flicker on incadesent lights was horrendous! While we adjusted it down to 62 cycles it stlii has noticible flicker, but not enough to hurt the eyes. That’s my 2 cents.
I’ve seen absolutely the worst generators ever, US Army issue 24V 45 cycle 3kw. Ever been in a disco? Want to talk about light flicker and distortion? After a few minutes my eyes started hurting. I’d much rather use an onboard vehicle generator or a flashlight than one of those 3k POS. The new ones are much better, not a flicker or phase to be seen, and enough juice to run your lights, computers, TV, coffee pot, AC, and recharge a cell phone (not authorized of course) but we don’t get one of those, that’s for the General[:(]
I’ve never noticed a flicker in my lights at home, only in some industrial settings and even then it was due to poor maintenance I’m sure. In any case, we are all forced to use what the utility company sells us, we just have to make it work.
Ian, unbalances in the US 120/240 system do occur. Back in NY, I noticed in a friend’s house that every time the furnace went on the front room lights got brighter. Undoubtedly the neutral wasn’t up to the task and the furnace was on the other leg of the input line.
What do you mean “dead”??
You apply anywhere from 50V upwards and things are bound to be real lively.[;)][}:)][}:)][:)][:)]
OTOH since most of us will not influence the voltage or cycle frequencies supplied to our households i.e. we plug it in, it works, Hurray!! I guess it is a dead topic. [8][8][8]
Of course we could be discussing the relative merits of using solar panels to run our trains vs. using a stationary bicycle coupled to a generator vs having a waterwheel or windturbine for the same purpose.
Or people in zones with a lot of lightning strikes could speculate on the most efficient method to store all that energy to have a perpetual motion (or nearly so) GRR. [;)][;)][:)][:D][}:)][:D]
just a point of interest when i worked for the us navy in the 1960’s and 1970’s the navy jets used A.C. at 400 hertz or cycles per second it made for realy small powerful electric motors the higher the frequency the less iron required glennbob[bow][bow]
The flicker at 68 does seem weird. Lot of studies done when cinema (movies, that is) were being developed and they settled on 24 fps with each frame shown twice to eliminate flicker.
But fluorescent lights seem to have a different ‘bent’. If you look through plate glass, at night, at a display window lit by fluorescent bulbs and hum at just the right frequency, strange effects occur. Humming at multiples of 60 cycles is necessary. Bring a tuning fork.
As far as voltage, frequency, and rigor mortis, i.e. death, it takes - from what I’ve read - only 75 milliamperes (0.075 amps for the decimally challenged) to initiate coronary fibrillation which shortly leads to short of breath, like death. Have wondered for years how this data was collected. Where did they get the volunteers? It should be noted that 1.5 volts can supply 75 milliamperes through a low enough resistance like the blood stream. Anybody know the resistance of blood per foot?
I’ve heard of people that have died when working on the 12 VDC system in their cars. The battery acid on their skin, combined with a firm grasp of the car frame and tools got them. Don’t think that just because it’s “low voltage” doesn’t mean that it’s completely safe.
It’s only safe if it’s grounded.
As for the single-phase residential vs. the discussion on three phase, I can cover both bases!
Residential loads are 99.9% single-phase in nature here in the US. It’s tfed from a 240 volt transformer that’s centert tapped (120 volts), hence the 240/120. All of the nomenclature for 120 or 117 or 110 volts just indicates at what voltage is “nominal” or the “minimum” for the equipment. In reality the ANSI standard is anything between 126 and 110 volts at the outlet is fair game for the appliance.
For three-phase customers you have several possibilities. Medium commercial loads and large apartment buildings will typically take 208/120 volt grounded-WYE service. Larger or heavy industrial customers will often take 480/277 volt Grounded-WYE service. In these two cases the transformer windings are shaped like a wye, with the neutral grounded.
You can also get in some areas a three-phase 240/120 delta, where you have three 240 windings built into a delta with one of the windings center tapped and grounded. This will give you a 240/120 single-phase service which is typically used for lighting and office use, and 240 delta to drive the three-phase equipment. Most 208 V three-phase equipment can be powered from 240 delta. Gas stations love this service as everything they have is 120 or 240, except their air compressor which is three-phase.
I understand but the overall voltage is still pretty low, I didn’t understand how they di d that before, I thought they brought in a a neutral and just shared thatneutral over two phases!