wrote in message ...
On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:21:28 -0600, "Greg O"



Typical residential power in the USA is single phase. If your shop is in a
commercial building you may have three phase. Do you have any 4 pole
outlets
mounted anywhere? If you do you probably have three phase power.
Greg



Actually, you typically have 2 phase power into residence. 120 V on
two legs of a 3 phase system. This allows you to run phase to phase
(208V) like on some electric heaters, or 240V (120 x2) for an electric
stove. Depending on location, you can get the third wire to give
you 3 phase, but be prepared to pay the big bucks.

If the shop is 'residential' there will likely only be 2 phase power
and you can confirm this my looking at how many wires enter the mast
just before the meter on the building. 3 wires is 2 phase (2
power-one common)

Pete

Around here residential is single phase. Line to line is 240 volt, line to
neutral is 120 volt.
I have never heard of what you describe in a residential setting. I question
if you are certain about what you describe. How do you get 208, and 240 out
of one service, never seen it without additional transformers. 208 volt 3
phase will get you 120 to neutral. We see it all the time in commercial
buildings. We used see some 240 3 phase commercially, but it seems to have
been replaced with 208 3 phase.
Greg