On Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 11:44:47 PM UTC-5, Uncle Monster wrote:
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
I should not have used the term "ice storm". My bad.
They now refer to them as an "ice event" because the ice doesn't "storm",
it forms. You can have a rain storm or a snow storm, in that the rain or
snow is the precipitation.
In an ice event, the rain is "supercooled" but not frozen. When it hits a
surface that is at or below 32°F, it begins to form a layer of ice.
Therefore it is an event (something that happens) not a storm.
If the raindrops freeze while still falling, it is known as sleet. There
can be situations where you will have sleet and an ice event at the same
time, but they are 2 different things. Some rain has frozen, some has not.
The worst ice event I experienced was back when they were still called ice
storms. A bunch of us used chain saws to clear our road so the utility
trucks could get to our power lines easier. I neatly ran the lines to my house
inside the pickets of my board-on-board fence so that they were clear and
off the ground. The utility hooked me up 2 days before my neighbors who had
left their lines buried under branches.
Cousin I'm-Glad-Spring-Is-Coming Monster