Gardner wrote:

On 08-Aug-2011 15:35, Pete C. wrote:

Jon Anderson wrote:


He informed me that their 220 IS 220,
each leg, where ours is combined from two legs of 110.

Our 220 *is* 220, we just center tap the transformer to provide a
neutral in the middle.


In Australia (and other places that use 220) one leg is neutral (ie
has a potential that is very close to ground/earth) and one leg is hot.
This is just like in North America, except that in NA, the hot leg
is at 110 whereas in OZ it is 240.

In North America, 220 is made from TWO HOTs and neither leg is
neutral.

Many types of appliances are designed so that hot and neutral can't
be mixed up, and may have safety features that depend on the neutral
being, in fact, neutral. This is just as true of Australian appliances
as it is of North American or wherever.

Now you go putting two hots into an appliance designed for neutral
plus hot -- well, it may work fine. Or it might electrocute the
user. Your consulting electrical engineer would not sign off on
this.

Have fun.

__________________________________________________ __________________
Gardner Buchanan gbuchana(a)teksavvy(dot)com
FreeBSD: Where you want to go. Today.

Welders aren't exactly "appliances", and they don't have two conductor
plugs. We are also talking about applying OZ power to US appliances, not
the other way around, so they are built to accept two non-grounded power
legs and a separate ground connection.