Interesting, 3 phase in the UK

Hello all,

I called British Gas & Electricity today to ask them about 3 phase, they said I should call Manweb. I did just that and apparently they'll run three phase electricity into your house for free, in fact the woman was getting ready to sign me up for it before I'd finished asking my question. You need to get a 3 phase power meter from your supplier. I'm currently finding out how much one of these will cost and I'm not sure if you can still get the standard single phase at the moment.

I just thought some of you guys might be interested in what I've found out, even though it's not strictly CNC related, there are lots of machines out there that are going to waste that run on three phase and it seems that a couple of places charge you for having a three phase line put in. An when you can have the true three phase run in for free it kind of negates the need for a VFD unless you want the spindle control (And even then it's cheaper than buying one to convert the single phase 220 to 440). I forgot to ask what voltage this line will be at.

If you want to know what I find out about the meter and having a single phase line as well let me know.

Regards,
John H.


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