The question from the person in Peru about wiring for 230 volts raises a question: in places that use 230/240 volts for household current (i.e., most of the world), how is that power brought into the house? Here, we have 2 "legs" of 120 volts each (two hots and a neutral) of opposite phases, so that you can either tap 120 from either leg or 240 between them.
Is 230/240 brought in the same way so that you can get 480 volts (yikes!)? Or is it just one single circuit?
They aren't "opposite phases", they are opposite polarity as they are the center tapped (center is neutral) output of a single phase distribution transformer.
I'm pretty sure in most locations for residences it isn't brought in in such a way as to provide a 480V option. Once you get into commercial type locations with or without three phase it could be most anything.
The sad reality is that despite this type of propaganda, Vista works just fine. In the old days people bashed Windows for legitimate failings, but in recent years since those failing no longer exist, they have had to resort to baseless lies.
On 2/2/2009 6:40 PM Pete C. spake thus:
Yes, same phase, opposite polarity. My bad.
In MOST of the 220 volt world it is 220 to ground and 440 is not available in residential or institutional applications. Britain MAY be an exception (and is technically 240, where most of the rest of the high voltage world is technically 230)
Very true..I've had an HP with Vista for over a year and really like it..I think the bad rap came from people trying to up grade old machines that barely met the requirements for Vista..It is a resourse hog which isn't a problem with the new machines with giant hard drives and mega ram but a big problem for antiques....Sometimes size does matter...LOL....
MS products have always been resource hogs......for years when calling MS tech support, the standard reply was "you need more RAM". I've been hearing this from them for nearly 20 years.
Now I don't hear it anymore ...... :)
I've left the "dark side" and run a MacBook Pro with best of both worlds; Mac OS and a virtual PC simultaneously using VM Ware's MAC / PC virtual machine engine called Fusion.
Now when IE crashes but doesn't crash my machine. :) XP runs better on my Mac than it ever did on a PC.
MS operating systems have gotten better & better (Win 3.0, WIn 95, Win 98, Win XP-Pro) I was pretty happy with XP-Pro but I no longer have to wait for them to "get good" instead of just "better".
I have not been lucky enough to experience Vista so I cannot comment on its merits or flaws.... MS OS's are a thing of the past for me.
cheers Bob
I think you were right. The transformer on the power pole produces two phases from one phase. Because the difference is pi radians, the polarities will be opposite when polarities exist.
No, it produces a one phase 240V output. The center tap on that output confuses people, but the output is indeed single phase.
On 2/3/2009 2:27 PM Pete C. spake thus:
Well, I suppose one could say that the two legs of 120 volts are 180° out of phase w/respect to each other (one goes positive while the other goes negative), right? Even though it is only single-phase power, strictly speaking.
It's either 120V (2 phases) or 240V (1 phase). The difference is in the point of reference. That's normally the ground.
On 2/3/2009 5:25 PM Mark Lloyd spake thus:
Right.
After this point, any more discussion is just arguing semantics.
Mostly, although the center tap is still the most groundlike point. That's normally the point of reference for measuring voltage.
On 2/4/2009 5:51 AM Mark Lloyd spake thus:
Was anybody disputing that?
The center tap actually *is* the ground point in domestic 3-wire (120-0-120) systems, connected in the customer's panel as both neutral and ground.
Yes, it is. I was just wondering why so many people were denying that.
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