230v service

[DanaK]

I'm trying to do some repairs on a house on our ranch the previous owner wired himself, which should set off a bunch of alarm bells right there. In one room there is a window air conditioning unit that's marked as using 230v a/c. As I remember, 230v is only one leg of three phase service. Is this correct?

Anyway, the people who lease the ranch SAY the a/c unit was working up until recently. I checked the wall plug, which has one verticle power blade and one horizontal along with the round ground one, and I get

120v to ground on one blade and nothing to ground on the other. Between the flat blades I get nothing which tells me there's some kind of break in the line (a breaker somewhere or it's burned in two) which goes Lord knows where. I'd need an Ouigi board to ask the guy how he wired this as he passed away a couple of years ago and the walls are all recycled shiplap. I'm just glad the place hasn't burned to the ground yet.

The house has only 120v service to it that I can tell (the stove is wired for 220v). How this was working up until now I don't know unless it was just the internal fan that was blowing. Is there a way to use

120v, or 220v, on 230v system? That sounds crazy to me and the information panel on the a/c unit doesn't hint at a re-wiring option like I've seen on some A/C motors.

Thanks in advance for anyone's insight out there.

[toller]

No such thing as 220v or 230v, only 240v; which some people insist on calling almost anything. However, you are thinking of 208v, which is two legs of three phase; but since you don't have 3 phase, it really doesn't matter.

Check out:

will tell you what voltage your outlet is supposed to be. (though I have no idea why they call it 250v!)

I am guessing you have a 6-20, but it could also be a 5-20. If it is a 6-20, it sounds like one half your your breaker tripped, though that isn't supposed to happen. If it is a 5-20, then perhaps you have a bad neutral connection somewhere. Did you try resetting all the breakers?

[trader4]

Sounds like your house, like just about all, has 240V service. That's what's running the stove. The A/C sounds like it lost one leg of the

240V. You should have 120V between either leg and ground, 240V between legs.

[Stormin Mormon]

The plug with one vertical and one horizontal is designed for 220 volts. Like the other person said, it sounds like an open leg of the 220.

I suggest you call a Mormon Electrician.

[Steve B.]

No offense intended here but you dont have enough knowledge to be working on the electric service in this house. People's lives are at stake and you don't have a grasp on the basics yet. That not a bad thing... just get a good book and read up on it some but in the meantime get an electrician out there to resolve the problems.

Steve B.

[Panos Popadopalous]

If your house is wired for 120V service, there is no way you can get proper

230V operation of any 230 V appliance..

If the stove operated it was running at about its normal wattage.

You say the stove has an "internal fan". Never heard of that. try again.

I recommend you hire an experienced , licensed electrician to check this out before you burn out an appliance, or someone gets Electrocuted!

[gfretwell]

My guess is you simply lost a phase. Do you have a 3 wire service? That is 240v in the US (which may be a bad assumption Are you US?) That will be 120v to ground on each leg, 180 out of phase, which gives you 240v across both hots. If you lose a phase yopu will "see" the ground across the other loads so one side will be 120, zero on the other. Try flipping the main breaker off and on a couple times.

[5p5]

If this is a residence in the USA, I would bet dollars to doughtnuts that you have a 220 VAC service, and that the AC unit is also 220 VAC (from your description of the receptacle). I would further guess that one leg of the 220 circuit to the AC unit is out, for whatever reason, bad breaker, fried receptacle, etc. You should be reading 110 between either leg & ground & 220 between the 2 legs.

If you -aren't- in the USA though, this post may not make any sense.

[sleepdog]

Convection ovens come with internal fans. Otherwise known to laymen and women as "stoves" in common parlance if the unit also has a cooktop range.

[Ralph Mowery]

What voltage is 208 using two out of three legs of ? It is usually a 208 three phase system. YOu take two legs off that and get the nominal 110 volts. Not to get hung up on what to call it but whenever I hear

110,115,120 and not often but sometimes 125 volts mentioned I think of it as the voltages the normal outlets in the home have been called over the years. Same as for the 220 to 240 volts. But I don't think that the 208 has ever been mentioned except as a 3 phase circuit and is not found in normal residential service.

[HorneTD]

Try again. Two legs of three phase 208 give you one phase 208. Any single leg to the grounded current carrying conductor (neutral) gives you 120 volts. 208 is found in normal residential service in multiple dwellings and in single family detached homes that are located in neighborhoods dominated by commercial occupancies or served by the same transformer set as a larger multiple dwelling. Supply practices vary by utility, state, dominant loads in area... A single phase appliance rated for 230/208 supply will run on any single phase voltage between

205 and 245. With some such appliances you will have to change the motor taps in the stuffing box on the motor to allow it to run on the lower voltage. 230 is the nominal voltage that identifies equipment that will run on voltages between 220 and 240. If the equipment is not marked with the /208 it will not run on the lower voltage without a real risk of overheating and motor failure.

[Matt]

Tom!

Where the hell have you been?

The COMPLETE BULLSHIT answers to electrical questions are running RAMPANT.

Go check out the Spa, GFIC and 'How do I find a buried cable' threads.

Extra credit: check out the "How do I ground my puter' thread.

[Doug Miller]

Wrong. 208V 3ph is 208V phase-to-phase and 120V phase-to-neutral.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[Ralph Mowery]

You are correct. I was thinking of the phase to neutral and did the phase to phase mistake. I have been working too much with the 3 phase 480 stuff at work to be thinking of the 3 phase 208 circuits . We have some of them but not very many.

[Bill Waller]

Except for Philadelphia Electric. I personally worked with a 240 3 phase service that provide nominal 120v to ground (neutral) on two legs and 208v to ground (neutral) on one leg. That leg was refereed to as the "high leg". I personally blew up some fluorescent lighting because I failed to check which leg I was using.

I have been told that the PECO scenario is a bit unusual.

____________________ Bill Waller New Eagle, PA

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