myredracer wrote:
road-runner wrote:
ScottG wrote:
50A is also single phase ;)
It's split phase Discription
From the wikipedia link:
"This results in two 120 V AC line voltages which are out of phase by 180 degrees with each other." (Sounds like 2 phases to me.)
"Since the two phasors do not define a unique direction of rotation for a revolving magnetic field, a split single-phase is not a two-phase system."
Contradiction? That's because "two-phase system" has a formal definition of 2 phases being 90 degrees apart. Split-phase has 2 phases 180 degrees apart. So while split-phase can't be called two-phase, it's not single phase either. It's a supply that has 2 phases and it's called split-phase.
A 120/240 volt system is always referred to as single phase and never as having phases. In power systems, there is either single phase or 3-phase systems (as in commercial/industrial systems), never "two-phase". In 3-phase systems, it is very important to understand the phases of conductors because it affects things like motor rotation but switching the two hot legs on a 120/240 system isn't all that important.
A 50 amp service in an RV or a 200 amp service in a house are identical except for current rating. In the electrical industry these are referred to simply as 120/240 volt, single phase. There is Line 1 and Line 2 and a neutral (grounded). L1-L2 is 240 volts and either L1 or L2 to neutral (or ground) is 120 volts.
Phasors, or more correctly phasers, only exist in Star Wars movies. People should stop going to Wikipedia or Google on this stuff.
jkwilson wrote:
That's because people use different definitions of the word phase.
To an engineer or a technician, there are two phases on the user's side of the transformer because they use the term phase to describe the timing relationship between the sine waves.
If you're talking about an ordinary 120/240 volt system, strongly disagree.
Sorry but I have to disagree as well (and I was both a tech and an EE). There is only one defintion of phase; a 120/240 system is always a split singe phase and never two phase. The two sides of the phase are 180 out from each other or you could think of them as a continuation of each other. Or another way to think of it is that it's one signal that's devided. Wiki's wording is imprecise.
As was already pointed out, there is no 2 phase power in the USA.
OP, I would use a digital meter to verify what your analog meter is telling you.
