Melted

Hmm. Were devices plugged into this and using it at the time? IE: was a load present?

Reply to
Diesel
Loading thread data ...

I looked up the wiring diagram to your outlet.. The top pin is earth, left pin is neutral, right pin is 230volt 50hz.. according to pdf file I found...We have 240volt 60hz outlets here too, but, the majority of the time, the full 240volts isn't used on everything inside the appliance plugged into it. It's for the heavy lifting. the heating element, some motors (I've seen dryers setup for 120volt motors to turn the drum and 240volt motors doing the same thing), etc. The electronics (if it has them) are typically being fed by one of the two legs and a neutral. IE: 120volts.

Our 240volt plugs have four wires going to them. Two 120volt hots (phase wires), one neutral, one ground. Older setups have three, because they're missing the ground, obviously. So with ours, you can get 120volts or 240volts, from the same receptable. If you want 120, you use one hot and the neutral. If you want 240, you use both hots, no neutral. Hots are your phase wires. We call it single phase, but, technically, for 240volts, it's two different phase wires doing the job.

It looks like you either didn't have a good connection with the plug resulting in overheating on your live wire, or, you actually did overload it causing overheating. The damage doesn't indicate an arc to me, but a case of overheating on the live/hot side (or phase) as you call them...We don't have 'ring' circuits here, atleast not that I've seen. We have what you call radial circuits, instead. The last outlet on the circuit doesn't have wires feeding back to what you call a distribution board. We call those panels, and, ours look alot different than the ones i've seen via online pictures than yours.

The big advantage to setting up a ring vs radial circuit is the lower power load on the wires themselves; since you're actually feeding it from both directions. But, it seems to be something unique to the UK, as far as I know.

Reply to
Diesel

I don't often hear of it described as split phase. It's dual phase, or, single phase.. mostly said to be said single phase. Not to be confused with two phase. lol. Our homes only use both 120volt 'phases' with certain things. Everything else runs on one of the two. And even the devices that use both sometimes use a single one for certain components inside them and both for the heavy lifting. Like an electric dryer with electronics. The electronics usually use 120volts where as the heating element and sometimes (but not always) the motor uses both.

Reply to
Diesel

Most of the outlets/receptacles in the house, yes. The 240volt ones are typically different and so won't let you plug something designed for half of that into them. We don't have a pile of 240volt outlets in our homes. They are reserved for appliances like electric dryers, etc.

Reply to
Diesel

AIUI what you have is stricly single phase, but using an anti-phase.

If you like you get 240V AC but with neutral half way between, at ground potential.

So the incoming to a house would be 3 wires, sinle phase centre tapped..as it were.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Not here we don't.

We don't screw lightblubs into anything. We plug 'em in because our blubs use bayonet fittings - much safer.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Transformer here is single-phase in and single-phase out. No anti-phase in use here.

And if the trend continues, we'll be switching everything to 5v USB service.

Reply to
Mr. Juice

but we do twist them.

Reply to
charles

Not if you buy Ikea stuff.

Reply to
dennis

I don't buy IKEA stuff. Not electrical anyway.

Reply to
Tim Streater

=92=E2=80=A6)=C3=A3=C6=92=C5=BD

So it must be a bit of a nuisance to plug a dryer in. I can stick a lar= ge appliance wherever I want. I must have about 10 or 20 appliances tha= t would require the full 3kW.

-- =

You can't polish a turd, but it's funny as f*ck watching someone try.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

I thought the only point to having 120 was it's safer. If it isn't, then why have it?

But I disagree, I've never been kicked off 240V. I would say it depends on what muscle gets the current, not how powerful it is. If it gets a muscle which closes your hand, then you grab. If it gets the muscles on the other side, you release. Which is why firemen are told to feel with the back of their hand incase of loose wires, so their arm will jump away from the wire.

I think I've had around 8 240V shocks in my life. They don't kill you.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

Anyone touching the pins deserves what they get.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

More wires everywhere, harder to follow the wiring inside a dryer etc. = I prefer a single voltage. I see no advantage in having a 120V present = aswell.

Likely, it gets yanked a lot with the vacuum cleaner.

No, I only ever use 1kW, through either of the devices, never both at on= ce. Anyway it's fused, so that would have blown.

It's a stupid idea, as is your radial. Yours has a lot more cable throu= gh the house, ours can cause a fire if one half of the loop breaks, givi= ng you 15A wire protected by a 30A fuse. Best would be simply a long si= ngle line of sockets, connected at one end only, using wire of the same = rating as the fuse in the fusebox - i.e. like our ring, but without the = return part, then use 30A wire.

-- =

Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess, Will you marry me= ? The Princess said; No!!! So the Prince lived happily ever after and ro= de Harley Davidson motorcycles and banged skinny long-legged big-titted = broads and hunted and fished and raced cars and went to naked bars and d= ated women half his age and drank whiskey, beer and Captain Morgan and n= ever heard bitching and never paid child support or alimony and banged c= heerleaders and kept his house and guns and ate spam and potato chips an= d beans and blew enormous farts and never got cheated on while he was at= work and all his friends and family thought he was freak'in cool as hel= l and he had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up. The end.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

It's not an antiphase or two phases. It's one phase that's split, with a centre tap. If you have a 240V primary, -9/0/9V secondary on a transformer in your stereo, you can't say there are two phases. It's an 18V output with a tap in the middle, just like a set of 4 AA cells with a connector inbetween the middle two, giving you 0/3/6V.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

They aren't safer or more dangerous, they're precisely the same. Either allows you to stick your finger in an empty one and shock it. Both keep the bulb in quite firmly. The screw ones might sometimes work loose, but so what, the bulb just switches off. But.... bayonets tend to crumble with the pressure and heat and eventually they can fall out. I've actually seen a bulb fall off the fitting with nothing to have made it do so.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

IKEA furniture often has lights in it.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword
[snip]

That didn't answer my question...

Reply to
Diesel

What country is here?

I forgot to include various types of light fixtures that don't screw into a socket, but, plug into them instead. Flourescent tubes, some LEDs, etc. Safer how?

Reply to
Diesel

It's not harder to follow most of the time, even if you don't have an electrical schematic handy to view. Usually, the higher capacity wires are a little thicker than the others and tend to stick out like a sore thumb if you locate where they connect.

You don't just grab the plug and pull it straight towards you? Are you disconnecting it while the vacuum is running?

That's actually not the fuses primary job...It's primary job is to cut power in the event of a short circuit. Overheating can take a little longer to kill the fuse. And, if it's done in small amounts over time without reaching the fuse tolerance, you can wear out the device and have the issue you did without blowing the fuse.

You just described a radial circuit, but with slightly different wiring capacity...it's radial as long as it's not going back to your fusebox from the last outlet/receptacle or socket in you case, and ring if it does go back to the same breaker/fuse you originated from.

I'm not sure based on what you said where the higher amp capacity wire would come into play. Are you suggesting that the 30A wire be the feed to the circuit and the circuit itself use the wire that's matched to the breaker or fuse in the fusebox, instead? Otherwise, why not just use the matching amperage wire capacity to the fusebox?

I don't know about best, because then all the sockets would be sharing the same breaker or fuse. If one room blows a fuse or trips a breaker, all rooms go dead. Also, it has other disadvantages. Everything in the house is sharing the same line. Heavier loads that startup can cause voltage spikes and dips for the rest of the devices sharing the circuit. Harmonics would likely be an issue as well, not to mention, the ground and neutral issues.

formatting link

Reply to
Diesel

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.