On 08/07/2013 15:24, John Rumm wrote:
On 08/07/2013 15:12, Nightjar wrote:
On 08/07/2013 06:14, charles wrote:
In article , SteveW

wrote:
...
Not entirely sure, but when they replaced the main fuse and housing
here
some years ago, I'm sure I remember seeing four cores (three phases +
neutral, with the sheath as earth). It could well be that they brought
3-phase to every house on the road when they were built in the 30s and
only connected one phase at each. If I were to need 3-phase, that'd
be a
useful cost saving!

This house (built 1911) has all 3 phases incoming - I assume so proper
balance could be obtained empirically.

It was once normal practice to connect each house in turn to a different
phase. As you say, that was to achieve phase balance.

When they built a new estate of 25
bungalows, just round the corner, some 30 years ago - they were all on
the
same phase. How things change.

That stops people importing 400v into their house by putting an
extension lead over the fence, or otherwise sharing supplies.

Which if your road is wired like that, would be a pretty cheap way of
getting three phase if you get on with both neighbours ;-)

When I worked for an electricity board, it was more usually done
surreptitiously, in one case by cutting small holes through the wall and
driving six inch nails through the neighbour's meter tails, in order to
keep the electricity bill down.

Colin Bignell