RobertL wrote:

Maybe not. In Norway they have three phases but no neutral. Each
house gets all three phases. In each room of the house the sockets
etc. are connected between one pair of phases. There is 240 Volts
between phases and therefore a lower voltage between any one phase and
earth.

THis had the amusing effect (when I lived there) that you could blow
one of the three fuses and then find that pluging in an electric
heater in one room made the lights work in the next room!

Many years ago, after reports of a hairdryer making odd noises
when plugged into a socket at a French camp site, I checked with
my multimeter.

Both conductors measured 220 V to the earth pin, 380 V between
conductors. They had actually connected two phases to the same
socket outlets. Fortunately there were some outlets without
earth pins which were OK.

I decided that my technical French was probably about as good as
the camp proprietor's grasp of three-phase vector theory, and
kept quiet.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.