27 Nov
2014
27 Nov
'14
12:16 p.m.
On 11/26/2014 10:10 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
In the US, if your house was wired for three-phase,
you would have
208V nominal across your clothes dryer and range outlets, rather than
240V. A friend lived in an apartment building wired that way, and
they routinely had problems with appliances designed for 240V not
working properly or failing on the 208V.
Yes, there are industrial air conditioning and such gear
made for 208/240 use.
Generally, most consumer-grade A/C's are 240 only. The 208
V situation in
the apartment buildings is quite common, and the gear
installed when the building
went up would be the right type. Any A/C installer who goes
to an apartment
building OUGHT to know about this, and if they installed a
240 V unit there, they
were just not well-trained.
Our building at work has 240 V Delta, 120/208 V Wye and 480
V Delta, rather
haphazardly scattered around. The office area has the
120/208 and there are
autotransformers attached to the walls near the windows for
running 240 V
window A/C units off the 208 V.
Jon