19 Jul
2016
19 Jul
'16
10:47 a.m.
On Tue, 19 Jul 2016, Paul Koning wrote:
Yes, and time dependent as well. I grew up in
Holland; in the 1970s, we
had 3 phase in our house because we had an electric cooking range.
As you probably know, that's not usual the setup in North America, even
for folks with electric ranges.
In the USA, if you're a home owner with a need for
3 phase power, you
probably have to get a phase converter. Fortunately those are not hard
to get, and solid state ones (variable frequency motor controllers) can
be rather inexpensive.
I've been responsible for bringing 3-phase into several new buildings.
I'd totally endorse a VFC in most cases (except that it's one more part to
break if that's a concern). The reason is that the lowest cost I've seen
in Colorado was $4500 and the most is $7000 from Xcel. I've *never* heard
of them simply saying "Oh your old transformer will handle that just
fine." YMMV
-Swift