On Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 3:12:57 PM UTC-6, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Sat, 05 Mar 2016 20:46:36 -0000, DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 2:50:39 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:52:43 -0000, "Mr Macaw" wrote:

240V and 0V. Neutral and ground are both connected to the 0V line, which is an earth spike at the 11kV to 240V substation (transformer) across the road.

Over here in the colonies we take that 240v and center tap the
transformer so both ungrounded legs are 120v above ground. That still
gives us the ability to use 240v equipment but most ends up being
120v. I suppose we can blame Thomas Edison for that. He started a fear
campaign against Nick Tesla over AC current, Edison wanted DC and he
said AC was more deadly, to the point of electrocuting an elephant
along with more than a few condemned prisoners ... all with AC.
When he lost the war, the deadly part still stuck and the belief was
that 120 would be safer, still leaving the option of having 240v
equipment.

It is interesting that you only have 11kva transformers. Typically
here, a single home would be on a 25kva, the smallest generally
available. Two houses get a 37 and 3 houses would get a 50.
That is about the max on a single transformer. Distribution will be
13kv to ground (3 p wye)

This is a 50
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/50%2...ransformer.jpg
This is the typical installation
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/transformer.jpg

You can see 2 of the 3 drops going off to the houses

And those 50's blow up quite spectacularly during ice storms.

What is an "ice storm"? Is that the same as a "hail storm"? Our transformers never seem to break.

5 days without power. Gave me the chance to start the aquarium over
from scratch. :-(

Surely you could have found enough juice to heat an aquarium?
--

Here in The U.S. even down South, on some occasions in the winter if the the temperature is just right and the planets are in alignment, we will have a winter rain storm where the rain freezes and builds up on the power lines and trees. The weight of the ice can cause power lines to snap or make a tree fall on a power line and bring it down. Such weather has come to be called an "Ice Storm". When I was a young lad, I resided in North Alabamastan where one winter, there was a horrendous ice storm that knocked out power and took down a lot of trees over a wide area. It's really the only extremely bad ice storm I can remember and it's from the middle of the last century.. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Ice Monster