CA Traveler wrote:
There are many posts referring to 50A as 2 phase, out of phase etc. It is in FACT single phase which is a result of a single center tapped secondary winding on the transformer. The center tap is the neutral and the 2 ends of the winding are L1 and L2. Split phase is a good description of this single phase power. And because of this design the neutral carries the difference of the 2 hot wire amps as described above. As a result all 3 wires are sized for 50A and protected from overload by a dual 50A CB. The The safety ground wire is the fourth wire.
This circuit supports both 120V and 240V appliances and 240V appliances are typically found in homes.
All homes have split phase power. My house has a 200A panel supplying 120/240 200A 60Hz power. ie 200A * 240V = 48KW where a 50A RV plug supplies 12KW. There may be some rare houses that have different power for example a shop.
Very few RVs use 240V appliances and instead use only 120V. Some home appliances like electric ovens and dryers use both 120V and 240V. The heating element uses 240V while the lights and controls use 120V.
When you split something, don't you now have 2 of them or at least 2 pieces? Should the two 120V sources be called phase pieces?
Since it's quite important to know which "phase/leg/polarity/sign/magnitude/whatever" the 120V circuits are on when dealing with shared neutrals and balancing loads, what terminology are we supposed to use to describe them?
