Re-wiring Appliances from Europe.....?

[browsermadman]

JayS, you wrote
I used to work as an electrician in Sweden. Some old installations there have 220V between the phases! Hence, you have 2-phase in the wall sockets!


The scandinavian 1 phase system use 220V between two live wires and 110V when you measure any of the live wires to earth, in comparison, in the UK, live to earth has 220V.
I believe this is just to do with how you tap off your 3phase with a neutral (440V connections) to get your single phase.
Advantage that we have in Scandinavia with this system is that you only get 110V if you choose to use yourself as a ground connection. Disantvantage is that it is more complicated for the supplier to balance the phases in the grid. (I think...........). And I have in a few instances run 110V stuff by using the earth as the neutral. Not sure of this is the correct, approved way to do so.

Other than that it does note make a difference for your normal appliances, If you take equipment across from Scandinavia that are old they will not be marked with live and neutral, but I suppose that does not really mean jack **** in the end. I have taken across a few things and have never really paid attention to the colours, I have not blown up yet

 

[ZenStalinist]

They used to do that in the USA, too. That's why their sockets weren't originally polarised. They introduced polarized sockets when neutral came in, and some cretinous, cheapskate manufacturers began to use the metal case of the appliance to supply the neutral (and used the argument it acted as a safety device). Needless to say, some people chopped off the polarized plug and used a non polarized one, and subjected themselves to nasty shocks 50% of the time they plugged the appliance in.
It was only then that earthing (or grounding) was introduced in the USA.

 

[JayS]

JayS, you wrote
I used to work as an electrician in Sweden. Some old installations there have 220V between the phases! Hence, you have 2-phase in the wall sockets!


The scandinavian 1 phase system use 220V between two live wires and 110V when you measure any of the live wires to earth, in comparison, in the UK, live to earth has 220V.
I believe this is just to do with how you tap off your 3phase with a neutral (440V connections) to get your single phase.
Advantage that we have in Scandinavia with this system is that you only get 110V if you choose to use yourself as a ground connection. Disantvantage is that it is more complicated for the supplier to balance the phases in the grid. (I think...........). And I have in a few instances run 110V stuff by using the earth as the neutral. Not sure of this is the correct, approved way to do so.

Other than that it does note make a difference for your normal appliances, If you take equipment across from Scandinavia that are old they will not be marked with live and neutral, but I suppose that does not really mean jack **** in the end. I have taken across a few things and have never really paid attention to the colours, I have not blown up yet

I'll have to disagree with this...

- The very old system used to be: 130V/220V, 1-phase/3-phase.

- It was changed a long time ago to 220V/380V, 1-phase/3-phase.

- It has since been harmonised to 230V/400V, 1-phase/3-phase. See section 313.1.0 in "Starkströmsföreskrifterna" (1999 edition, in Swedish: http://www.elsakerhetsverket.se/pdf/foreskrifter/1999_5.pdf)

110V that's what the old DC system used to be...150 years ago...

You are NEVER allowed to use earth as return!!!!!!

The sockets are not polarised because the plug type used is symetric. Hence, you can put it in either way so it wouldn't make much point to polarise it.

 

[browsermadman]

JayS,

Your right, I am just a Norwegian Engineer that tend to try out things and if it works, you can use it......