OT: american vs european 220 (Tony Duell)

Yes, exactly. The domestic mains is nomianlly 230V now. We get a single phase wire and a neurtal, the latter being close to ground. Everything is designed to run off that 230V supply. There is no 'centre tap'. So our cookers, say, have 230V elements and a timer that runs off 230V mains. Actually, the European mains is 3 phase. The final transformer secondary is start (wye?) connected with the star point being th eneautral. Houses get a single phase supply consisting of that neurral wire and one of the phase wires -- to balance the load, neighbouring hosues in a road get different phases [1]. Of coruse industral places get the full 2 phase mains to run larger motors, etc. It's very difficult to convince the electricity companies to run 3 phase mains into a normal house, though, which is a problem for people who ant to run large disk drives ;-) [1] In the cases of blocks of flats, student halls of residence, etc, it's not unheard-of for each floor to be wired to wired to a different phase. This has led to studend running extension leads to the rooms above and below theres so as to get a 3 phase supply...