4 ms·
It's also common in the US for neighborhoods to have 240V 3 phase, and for a neighborhood to have a common neutral. Each house gets the neutral and 2 of the hot
by nwallin 5y ago
It's also common in the US for neighborhoods to have 240V 3 phase, and for a neighborhood to have a common neutral. Each house gets the neutral and 2 of the hots. Hot to neutral gives 120V, hot to hot gives 208V. (240*sin(120 degrees))
The result is that the high voltage appliances need to support both 240V and 208V. Most appliances just design for 240V and test to ensure they don't break at 208V, and just give reduced power at 208V. Which is often fine, but a 208V stovetop is a pretty miserable experience.
- sopooneo 5y agoInteresting. Thank you. I always assumed they were 180° out of phase.
- p1mrx 5y agoYou could run a heating element at full power on 208V by adding a center tap connected to neutral. For something fancy like an EV charger, you would probably need dual 120V AC/DC converters, which isn't worth the effort, given that constant-current loads run at 86% power (208/240), compared to resistive loads at 75% power (208/240 squared).