# 9KW US Appliance in UK and Italy



## frank (Feb 6, 2007)

2 hots and a ground sounds odd to me. I connect quite a bit of Us equipment here and nevere heard of such a thing. Uless of course it was something special like a 240 volt 2 phase only item. ie Welding equipment etc.

Guess we need more info. IE. For 2 hots do you mean hot and neutral?


Frank


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## BryanMD (Dec 31, 2007)

"2 hots and a ground sounds odd to me." 

Well, it is plain vanilla here (all water heaters, dryers, cookers, etc) 
120V Line to Neutral (or to ground) and 240V line to line.


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## scottawildcat (Jan 27, 2009)

By 2 "hots" I mean that there is 240 between the two of them and 120 to neutral. The system does not have a neutral. The voltage is refrenced between the two "hot" wires.


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

Sorry us Brits hav diffrunt 'lectrickery to youse:jester:
Everything is referenced to earth OR between phases. So, unless we go onto the HV side of things we have

230V to earth/neutral
415V between phases
and that is it. So apologies for not understanding you. It's a bit difficult for us to get our heads around, daft as it sounds


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## scottawildcat (Jan 27, 2009)

I think we are on the same page now...:thumbsup:
I am thinking that we can use one of the "hots" from my system as a neutral. That would give us 230V between one phase and neutral. The third leg would remain ground....That should work but is it common in the UK (and other European countries for that matter) to have a 230V 50A circuit?

Should we use 415 and step it down with a transformer? That may not be cost effective for us.


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

scottawildcat said:


> ..That should work but is it common in the UK (and other European countries for that matter) to have a 230V 50A circuit?
> 
> .


Oh yeah, 50A is for girls

63, 80, 100 is quite common single phase.[mainly commercial, but commonplace]...just done 4 single phase 80s today:yes:

on a side note...the majority of UK houses only have a 240V single phase 100A service from POCO [i like that, "POCO", ]
3 Phase is for Industrial/commercial and *F* big houses:thumbsup:


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## BryanMD (Dec 31, 2007)

Going back to the initial Q... the US appliances described use 3 wires (ground/hot/hot) at 240V single phase 60Hz. No neutral is required for these (older) appliances. All voltage measurements are either Line to line or line to ground. (Newer appliances typically throw a neutral in there as well now)

Frank... that 3 prong plug you asked about the other day is for a 120V appliance (Hot/Neutral/Ground).

TriMix described "230V to earth/neutral". Maybe a transformer could be utilized.

Probably be simpler (and maybe cheaper) to source new kit wherever it is you're going. "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore".


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Yes, the appliance will work with the UK 240 V. The appliance doesn't know the difference between 240 V from a U.S. system with two hots, or a U.K. system with one conductor grounded.


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## frank (Feb 6, 2007)

Twin Phase Cooker. Who ever heard of such a thing????? Only in the US of A could such a thing be found. Industrial 2 phase OK But domestic???????? The mind boggles.

Frank. - dumbfounded but now enlightened>


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

frank said:


> Twin Phase Cooker. Who ever heard of such a thing????? Only in the US of A could such a thing be found. Industrial 2 phase OK But domestic???????? The mind boggles.
> 
> Frank. - dumbfounded but now enlightened>


Have you not seen those crapcious foreign cookers where you take off the connection plate and there are a set of jumper links to move for different voltages? I nearly sh4t myself first time I saw one! Thought had ordered the wrong item
....I still don't understand USA 'lectric. What with there multi branch ccts, varicose voltages, weird [by UK standards] earthing, bonding of neutrals in main panel, removable meters [good idea though] etc etc etc .it makes my old brain go into overload


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Trimix-leccy said:


> Have you not seen those crapcious foreign cookers where you take off the connection plate and there are a set of jumper links to move for different voltages? I nearly sh4t myself first time I saw one! Thought had ordered the wrong item
> ....I still don't understand USA 'lectric. What with there multi branch ccts, varicose voltages, weird [by UK standards] earthing, bonding of neutrals in main panel, removable meters [good idea though] etc etc etc .it makes my old brain go into overload


No, no, guys! We don't have "two phase". Our residential systems are single phase. We have 240 V from the transformer. But instead of grounding one leg, like you do, we center tap the transformer and ground that. So, we end up with two live legs with 240 V between them, and a neutral that's 120 V to each leg.

This way, we have two voltages available. Most devices and appliances use 120 V on a 15 or 20 A circuit. Larger appliances like the clothes dryer, stove, and water heater use 240 V. Here's a quick pic:


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## Trimix-leccy (Dec 4, 2007)

AHA! So you bring in 3 cables
the 2 that are at 240v and the 1 that is the 'centre tap' and that is the one you bond to earth at the main panel??

Got it!

The oly time we get that type of setup is on construction sites
We have a 240 to 110 transformer [portable]. This is centre tapped to earth, so if we get a 'belt' off it we only get 55v to earth.
I will rest easy now


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