A case for downgrading to PCs (was: WARNING: RANTING COMPUTERNUT...

At 09:44 PM 6/17/04 -0400, you wrote: There's a BIG difference. In delta the windings are arranged like a triangle with the power lines connected at the apexs so there isn't a neutral leg and the hot legs all work against each other. In Y, the windings are arranged like a Y with the neutral at the junction and the power lines at the ends of the legs therefore neutral is connected to one end of each of the three windings. There's also a significant difference in the voltages between the hot legs. IIRC the hot leg of a Y is 240 VAC WRT to neutral and about 300 VAC between the legs (it's the sum of the voltages on each leg times the SINE of their phase angles). In Delta there doesn't need to be a neutral but if there is it's isolated from the hot legs so there's no voltage difference. Also the voltage between the hot legs is fixed at 220VAC. Delta only needs three lines to work effectively, Y needs four (three for power plus neutral). Ideally the neutral in Y connection should be at 0 VAC WRT to ground but if you get a heavy power draw on one leg of a Y then it can shift the neutral away from 0 volts. The point is that there's a big difference in the voltages between the legs and also from the legs to neutral or ground in the two systems. I may not be exactly right about the exact voltages but it doesn't matter since they vary from country to country and region to region but you get the idea. Joe A while ago we had a