220 volt wiring

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220 volt wiring

Postby Denzagrad » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:02 pm

From another board....

220 Volt Wiring as Explained by Tom Gauldin

I think its time for me to explain about 220 current and why it is so different from 110 volt service. First of all, it's twice as big.

Secondly, it'll shock you more. Outside of that, 220 is really two 110 volt lines coming to your house from different parts of the globe.

The up and down 110 comes from the northern hemisphere, and the down and up version comes from below the equator.

Without trying to get technical, it all boils down to the direction water flows when it goes down the drain. In the top of the earth, it goes clockwise, while on the bottom of the earth it goes counter clockwise. Since most electricity is made from hydro dams, the clockwise flow gives you an up and down sine wave, while the counterclockwise version gives you a down and up sine wave. Between the two, you have 220 volts, while either individual side only gives you 110 volts.

This is partiularly important to know when buying power tools- which side of the globe did they come from? If you get an Australian saw, for instance, it will turn backwards if connected to a US generated 110 volt source. Sure, you can buy backwards blades for it, but that is an unnecessary burden. Other appliances, like toasters cannot be converted from Australian electricity to American electricity, without horrible results. I knew one person who bought an Australian toaster by mistake and it froze the slices of bread she put in it.

If you wire your shop with 220 and accidentally get two US-generated 110 volt lines run in by accident, you can get 220 by using a trick I learned from an old electrician. Just put each source into its own fuse box and then turn one of the boxes upside down. That'll invert one of the two up and down sine waves to down and up, giving you 220. DO NOT just turn the box sideways, since that'll give you 165 volts and you'll be limited to just using Candian tools with it.

(This was intended as pure humor) :lol:
Laughing
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Postby madjack » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:10 pm

.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :shock: :shock: :shock: :roll:

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Postby Chuck Craven » Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:55 pm

Does that mean if you bye a 110 v drill and turn it upside down it will work on 12v? :twisted: :shock: But if you take a 12v drill and turn it upside down, plug it in 110v you may be doing the 60HZ dance. :dancing
:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Postby Arne » Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:18 pm

Strange as it seems, most things are different down under, including revolving doors.... they do turn the 'other' way.

Back in the days when we were concerned that energy was running low, and the feds were giving tax credits for energy conservation, Australian roof-top solar water heaters were imported to Califonia... Australia was way ahead on saving energy...

They were installed according to the enclosed directions... and didn't work well.... they were installed facing North..
www.freewebs.com/aero-1
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electrical proof

Postby David Alston » Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:39 am

Any well travelled livestock owner can provide proof of Tom Gauldin's assertion about he geographic origins of electrical polarization. Pigs are notorious chewers of anything in reach and invariably sometime in it's life a pig will manage to find some exposed wire somewhere to chew on. Of course when they chew a 110v line, they get a heck of a jolt. Well if you inspect their tails you can see the result; they twist. And of course in the nothern hemisphere they twist clockwise and in the southern hemisphere they twist counterclockwise.

What's the result at the equator, you ask? Well some well funded lab research a few years ago, confirmed that pigs tails at the equator stick straight out.

(apologies to Carl Reiner)
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