I’ll admit that my understanding of these things is rather superficial. I might understand more than the average person but that’s not exactly a high bar to set.
However I always understood potential to be different to polarity. And that AC (which, to my knowledge, all electric grids globally carry) is the literal oscillation of polarity. What am I missing/misunderstanding from the GPs post?
English isn’t my native language, so I mixed up those two terms.
But that’s what I meant, the UK and US plugs (as well as switzerland I think?) theoretically have one pin always be hot, one always be neutral.
With Schuko, you can reverse the plug, and it'll still work, which is on the one hand awesome when you've got a tight space and want more plugs to fit, but can also require higher costs, as you've always got to switch both wires instead of just switching the hot one (although this is best practices everywhere, as you can never know how well the electrician followed specs when wiring your apartment 90 years ago).
The transformer on the pole delivers 240V rms center tapped, with the center tap being connected to ground at the pole. The center tap wire is actually uninsulated, and the two hots are wrapped around it for support. The center tap is connected to the neutral bus at the breaker panel.
Half the breakers are connected to one hot, and half are connected to the other hot. For 120V you wire hot/neutral to the receptacle, while for 240V you wire hot/hot. (Plus ground, of course.)
In the EU, receptacles are wired hot/hot, and there is no neutral conductor.
Thanks for the EU detail! Are you saying the typical house in the EU has three phase power delivered to it? All three phases?
Here in the US, where split-phase is the residential standard, a house with three phase is quite rare. The HV lines running on poles in a neighborhood are mostly single phase, at least in rural areas like mine.
> Thanks for the EU detail! Are you saying the typical house in the EU has three phase power delivered to it? All three phases?
Yes! And many electrical devices rely on it, though sometimes fallback to regular 230V single-phase at 32A is possible, e.g. for stoves.
And considering a typical stove runs at 11-15kW and a typical electric water heater between 15kW to 25kW, you'll need it as otherwise you'll need far higher amps than is reasonable.
Honestly, only due to the technology connections video did I realize that the US does not use triphase power in most homes, which was genuinely surprising.
Although I use a propane range, I'm wired for a 240V 30A electric one. That's only 7.2KW. My water heater is also propane.
I have a friend with a Bridgeport vertical mill in his garage/workshop. He had to build a single phase to three phase converter, so he could run its three phase motors.
However I always understood potential to be different to polarity. And that AC (which, to my knowledge, all electric grids globally carry) is the literal oscillation of polarity. What am I missing/misunderstanding from the GPs post?