two "phases" at wall-outlet
Posted by
JanRwl@A...
on 2000-10-03 18:22:44 UTC
In a message dated 03-Oct-00 16:24:28 Central Daylight Time,
Ian@... writes:
<< however, what has intrigued me
is the realisation from what has been said that you may have two phase power
to your homes and, even more surprising that both phases may be available at
a wall outlet! Can this be true?? >>
Ian: Please pardon! I omitted answer to this specific question: For
certain infrequent appliances such as window-mounted air-conditoners wanting
240 V. power, "special" (for us Yanks) 240 outlets are installed. These have
the "power-outlet slots" made horizontal, rather than vertical (our 120 V.
plug-pins are like yours, only smaller and closer together, and the "earth"
pin is round; whereas, these 240 volt plugs, when 20 amp or smaller, have
these pins horizontal! there are larger ones (50 A?) for clothes dryers,
with HUGE pins, and there are three or four styles of those!). You see, what
this is all about is simply this: We began using 120 (well, "110") volts for
lighting, back when lighting was about all there was to do with electricity.
Then later, it was realized that 240 had value, so some installations began
to have both. Still, I doubt that we will have "just 240" like you in the UK
for another Century!)
Have I sufficiently confused things? Jan
Ian@... writes:
<< however, what has intrigued me
is the realisation from what has been said that you may have two phase power
to your homes and, even more surprising that both phases may be available at
a wall outlet! Can this be true?? >>
Ian: Please pardon! I omitted answer to this specific question: For
certain infrequent appliances such as window-mounted air-conditoners wanting
240 V. power, "special" (for us Yanks) 240 outlets are installed. These have
the "power-outlet slots" made horizontal, rather than vertical (our 120 V.
plug-pins are like yours, only smaller and closer together, and the "earth"
pin is round; whereas, these 240 volt plugs, when 20 amp or smaller, have
these pins horizontal! there are larger ones (50 A?) for clothes dryers,
with HUGE pins, and there are three or four styles of those!). You see, what
this is all about is simply this: We began using 120 (well, "110") volts for
lighting, back when lighting was about all there was to do with electricity.
Then later, it was realized that 240 had value, so some installations began
to have both. Still, I doubt that we will have "just 240" like you in the UK
for another Century!)
Have I sufficiently confused things? Jan