[Boatanchors] Running European 230 VAC on our AC

[rbethman]

List,

My house has the inspector's signature and date stamp on the 200A 
panel.  It is XX Aug 1979.

The three wire 240VAC is what was used then.  I have two hots and a neutral.

The meter outside had a #10 AWG going to a 1/4" ground rod. (The "soil" 
here is pretty acidic.)  I don't have any faith into its actual worth as 
ground.

As most of us know, the line voltage is high.  I haven't bothered to 
measure the two hots.  One hot to ground/neutral, (They are bonded to 
the panel box on two separate strips. Yep, that's normal.)

I measure with a full scale AC voltmeter, just a plain old Simpson that 
is fed directly with a normal three pronged plug that is all mounted in 
a sloped front bud box.  The ground is bonded to the box.

It shows anywhere from 122 VAC to 127 VAC on any plug in the house.

The house is total electric.  Their is NO gas line in this neighborhood.

The Kitchen stove has two hots and neutral/ground to feed it with 50A.  
Whatever control voltages are used in it are all internally done.  I'm 
not pulling it apart to find out what is where.

The original stove that was in here when I bout this place in 1988, was 
directly wired from the cable coming out of the wall.  I installed a 240 
VAC plug in a 4"x4" box when the new stove came in aroung 2005.   The 
new stove wouldn't use the pigtail.

Not rocket science!

Bob - N0DGN

On 10/21/2012 11:05 AM, Glen Zook wrote:
> The neutral is NOT 120 VAC above ground!  That assumes that one side of the 240 VAC is grounded which is not the case in this country.  The secondary on the "pole pig" (distribution transformer) is center tapped with 120 VAC on either side of the center tap.  The connection to this center tap is the neutral.
>
> At the entrance to the building, the connection to the neutral is grounded by an external connection usually to a ground rod driven near the entrance point.  This puts the neutral basically at "ground" potential.  In 240-volt 3-wire systems (no longer approved for new installations) all 3-wires coming from the pole pig continue to the load.  In 240-volt 4-wire systems there is an additional "ground wire" which is connected to the point at which the neutral connects to the external ground rod.
>
> For the 120 VAC distributed within the building, one side of the 240 VAC and the neutral are involved which gives 120 VAC.  Then, a ground wire is added for safety.
>   
> Glen, K9STH
>