Did you ever have your linemen wire up the tickler backwards?? That
gets real interesting when the voltage should be 240/480 open delta. I
had a job where they needed 3 phase for the elevator and only delta was
provided. Thank God it was a 120/240 system because when I wiggied the
voltage at the socket I found over 420 volts (I don't recall the exact
voltage) from one leg to the other. If it had been a 240/480 service
that would have been 840 volts... considered "high voltage" and
decidedly dangerous to the operator, namely ME.

I used that situation on a Test that I was writing for our Utility.
Strangely, only a few people got the question right. We hired a couple
of those fellows.

John

Peter Dohm wrote:
It isn't 120/240 either. It is way too awkward to call it 118/236, even

though

that is most accurate. Calling it 110/220 gets the idea across... Let the
electrical engineers and others that get hung up on exactly what it is,

figure

out how to fight convention.

To me, it's still 110/220.


I call it that as well; but I have seen 125.


Now, let's get really weird, and figure out what comes out of the plugs at

my

school. Three phase, split off to use single phase, now is it Delta or Y?

95%

of the people in the US don't know and don't care. What will they call

that

208?


I would but that figure closer to 99.5%

I think that's unfortunate, since the easiest way to save money and energy
at the same time is to run motors on three phase power; and three phase Y is
the only place you'll ever see anything properly called 208 volts.

BTW, in my neck of the woods, if you were a major account, you used to get
only open delta unless you paid for the installation of closed delta--and it
was well worth the price!

Peter