There is a development nearly that has the same situation. Reason is that it used to be a commercial area and the utility has all distribution transformers deliver 3-phase 208V So, to avoid that ALL distribution network must receive new 11kV to 240V single phase transformers, the developer did what was expedient - feed every home with a (different!) pair of 208V wiring. What was the zoning for your apartment location before the apartment was built? Cor.
On Fri, Feb 7, 2025 at 6:28 PM Steve Gaarder via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > > In the US, the only residences that get 3 phase are apartment buildings. > I live in such a place. Each apartment, however, just gets 2 legs of the > 3 phase, so two feeds of 120, and between them 208 volts. My stove gets > 208 with a 50 amp breaker. Our EVSEs are connected to 208 volts single > phase, also with 50 amp breakers. > > The feeds to US homes are beefier than in Europe. 120/240 at 100 amps is > the minimum these days and 200 amps is common. > > cheers, > > Steve > > On Fri, 7 Feb 2025, Cor van de Water via EV wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 7, 2025 at 4:44 PM <e...@tucsonev.com> wrote: > >> Today, almost no homes receive 3 phase, it has to be requested by the home > >> owner and he has to have a valid reason for 3 phase. There is also an > >> upcharge for 3 phase installation, it also makes wiring the house much > >> more difficult and expensive because there are 2 systems since many of the > >> electrical appliances run on 1 phase only. And 3 phase is considered to be > >> more 'dangerous' than 1 phase. > > > > Hi Rush, > > Are you talking about the situation in Europe? > > Let me tell you my experience how I converted a home to 3-phase > > without touching any wiring in the home itself, just the fuse box: > > Every home that I lived in, in The Netherlands as well as homes of > > family members, has ALWAYS been provided 3-phase (400V = 3x 230V) from > > the distribution transformer, through the street (there are no > > overhead wires since ~25 years ago) and into the meter closet. Default > > the meter installed is single phase and so all circuits in the home > > are single phase 230V. > > When I moved into a rental (!) single family home over 30 years ago, > > we brought an electric cooktop that, while possible to run from 2 > > single phase circuits, would ideally get 3-phase power to avoid the > > hassle and continuous cost of a larger grid connection, which means: > > changing the utility side fuse (next to the meter) from 25 to 35A so > > we could use the cooktop without crippling it. The cheapest option for > > me was to request the utility to swap the 25A single phase meter with > > 25A 3-phase. This was a one-time free, after which I had no additional > > charges and due to that, the landlord also had no issues with it. > > What I did (instructed by the engineer from the utility company) was > > to install an additional 3-fuse enclosure next to the 5-fuse box that > > was running the whole house, to pull 3-phase wiring from the outlet in > > the kitchen that I installed over the empty conduit (which is a common > > feature in the houses, since the walls are *concrete* so you need some > > flexibility to reach rooms with new wiring) to the metering closet > > (where ALL empty conduits as well as all wiring from all rooms > > terminates) and prepare the meter-side of the now 8 fuse circuits by > > dividing those in 3 groups with 3 wires capable of carrying 25A each > > and temporarily terminating them all on the single phase output of the > > meter so the whole house still had power. > > The next day the utility company came, pulled the 1-phase meter, > > plugged in the 3-phase meter (as I said, the 3-phase wiring is already > > present from the street up to the meter in the utility closet), they > > installed 2 additional 25A fuses in the utility side fuse box (not > > accessible by residents), measured the wiring that I installed for > > correct phase and Neutral locations on the kitchen outlet and powered > > the house back up now with 3 phase power. I did not touch any wiring > > and every room in the house still had the same 230V 16A power, fused > > utiliy side by 25A, only the kitchen now had the 400V 16A outlet that > > allowed us to cook without limits on how many burners we could turn > > on. > > hope this clarifies, > > Cor. > > _______________________________________________ > > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
