[Boatanchors] Running European 230 VAC on our AC

[Sheldon Daitch]

Francesco,

I cannot remember if the place I lived in, in Munich, was a single
phase feed into the apartments or three phase.  The older
outlets in the apartment were not polarized, and that could
present an issue with autotransformers used for US appliances.

I do know the two apartments I lived in, when I was in Tangier,
were three phase and in the house in Kuwait where I currently live,
also is three phase.  The three roof-top air conditioning systems
require three phase and all of the panel boards inside the house
are also three phase.

An interesting convention on GFI protection here in Kuwait, where the
lighting circuits have a different GFI level than outlets.

Typical panel boards have a main breaker for the panel, then that
breaker feeds two sub-breakers, one with a 30mA GFI trip, the
other is a 300mA GFI trip.  The 30mA trip breaker feeds the outlet
circuits and the 300mA trip breaker feeds the lighting circuits.

73
Sheldon



On 10/21/2012 8:40 PM, Francesco Ledda wrote:
> The neutral is at ground potential in Europe as well. The power is
> distributed with four wires in a Y config. The neutral, local ground and one
> phase go in each house. Years ago, many houses there did not have any local
> ground. Furthermore, some countries that do not have polarized plugs like
> the US.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Glen Zook
> Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 10:59 AM
> To: WA5CAB at cs.com; boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Running European 230 VAC on our AC
>
> I didn't interpret that way!  His statement "but in the US, the neutral leg
> would be 120VAC above ground" is confusing because in the US the neutral leg
> is basically at ground potential.
>   
> Glen, K9STH
>
>
> Website:  http://k9sth.com
>
>
> ________________________________
>   From: "WA5CAB at cs.com" <WA5CAB at cs.com>
> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 10:32 AM
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Running European 230 VAC on our AC
>   
> Glen,
>
> What he said was that what should have been the neutral connection for the
> autotransformer (the I/O common) was connected to Line, not Neutral.  Which
> put what should have been the Neutral connection for the internals at Line
> (120 RMS) instead of near ground.
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