"James Sweet" wrote in message
news:ZQawi.3100$hK5.368@trndny02...


Ugh. Putting them up for each individual hous is a very, very
historic way to do it.


I don't think there's one by every house, seems like you see them
every few poles.


Generally it's 4-10 houses per transformer, it's nice, it makes it
possible to have quite good voltage regulation. I rarely see mine change
by more than a volt plus or minus.


The right way to do this is to use bigger transformesr for 10-100 houese
and to bury 3-phase AC lines. A lot more expensive, but pays off
in the long run, since you have less problems. And all these ugly
poles and transformers will vanish.



I'd love to have 3 phase, I've never seen it in a residence though, and
residential equipment is all single phase anyway, it works.

I kinda like above ground power, at least for the big stuff. Most of the
houses around here from the late 70s on have underground power, but some
of the old lines are starting to deteriorate so they've had to dig up
streets and flower beds to replace them.


Isn't the 'high' voltage that you have in the US for powering washing
machines and the like, phase to phase ? Seems like it wouldn't be that hard
for the power company to put in the third phase as well ? (I might be
totally adrift on this one - I'm not a power engineer ;-) )

Arfa