On Sat, 16 Nov 2013 13:50:57 -0500, Wes Groleau wrote:

The reference is neutral. Each "hot" is 180º from the other when the
correct reference is used.

I had posted a detailed answer but it got lost since aioe is eating up
my posts, so, I'll reply again that I think they're 120 degrees out of
phase.

Here's why I think that.

The 3 wires on the street distribution line are all hot wires.
They come from a transformer (a whole series of them) which is wired
with three coils. Hence, they're each 120 degrees out of phase with
each other (Y or delta coils).

Then you take *two* of those hot wires, and send them into your house.
Those two are *still* 120 degrees out of phase (AFAIK).

You stick a neutral wire in between (which is just a wire to ground at
the poles) and now you have either two 120 volt circuits, or one three-wire
240 volt circuit.

The key point is that they're 120 degrees out of phase. I don't remember
the math, but that knocks the RMS (or whatever it's called) voltage to
something like 208 volts (but I don't remember the exact equation).

Anyway, since they're *not* 180 degrees out of phase, there will be
current in the neutral. Actually, I guess if the two hot wires are
not used for anything else, i.e., if they're a *dedicated* circuit,
I'm not sure if any current still goes into the neutral.

Does anyone know if dryers are dedicated circuits?
If so, is there any current going into the neutral?

Note: If they were *not* dedicated circuits, then for sure there could
easily be current in the neutral since the loads wouldn't be balanced
all the time.