Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
of alternating current electric power using a system in which all the voltages
of the supply vary in unison. Single-phase distribution is used when loads are
mostly lighting and heating, with few large electric motors. A single-phase
supply connected to an alternating current electric motor does not produce a
revolving magnetic field; single-phase motors need additional circuits for
starting, and such motors are uncommon above 10 or 20 kW in rating.
1 Splitting out
2 Applications
3 Grounding
4 References
5 See also
[edit]
Splitting out
In North America, a typical three-phase system will have 208 volts between
the phases and 120 volts between phase and neutral. If heating equipment
designed for the 240-volt three-wire single phase system is connected to two
phases of a 208 volt supply, it will only produce 75% of its rated heating
effect. Single-phase motors may have taps to allow their use on either 208 V
or 240 V supplies.
[edit]
Applications
High power systems, say, hundreds of kVA or larger, are nearly always three
phase. The largest supply normally available as single phase varies according
to the standards of the electrical utility. In the UK a single-phase household
supply may be rated 100 A or even 125 A, meaning that there is little need
for 3 phase in a domestic or small commercial environment. Much of the rest
of Europe has traditionally had much smaller limits on the size of single
phase supplies resulting in even houses being supplied with 3 phase (in
urban areas with three-phase supply networks).
Three-wire single-phase systems are rarely used in the UK where large loads
are needed off only two high voltage phases.
Single-phase power may be used for electric railways; the largest single-
phase generator in the world, at Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant,
supplies a railway system on a dedicated traction power network.
[edit]
Grounding
[edit]
References
^ See three phase. This arises from the phase difference between the
conductors. If two conductors are energized with ac voltages that are the
same magnitude and in-phase, there will be no voltage difference between
them. If the voltages are the same magnitude and one voltage is delayed
one-half cycle with respect to the other, the voltage between the two will be
double. In a three phase system the phase difference between conductors is
one-third of a cycle; a little bit of algebra would show that the voltage
difference between two conductors is the square root of three the magnitude
of the phase to neutral voltage.