Downgrading 3 phase supply

[Cosmik Debris]

Indeed, and when you try and correct them, you get personal attacks and more... such as crying to the moderators.

Connecting the three phases together will likely result in a nice loud bang.
The whole point of having three phase is to run things more efficiently such as 3 phase motors.

Wanting to convert the thing to single phase to accommodate solar shows how little knowledge OP has.

Now I can sort of understand why this CoC bullcrap came in as a requirement for selling/buying properties

The worrying thing is the abysmal electrical knowledge of the replies too:

If you connect all the incoming cables together you will have 450 volts which is useless. If you just use one cable everything will be unbalanced.

Wow ok then

But there is 3 x 220 V cables
Wount he get 660 V?

One can only draw between two phases at a time not three.

I see, is that because they are 120 deg out of phase or is there another reason ?

 

[Arthur]

@Lct00
Yes, you can downgrade. That's exactly what I did. The house I bought had a 3-phase supply from the municipality. I informed the electricity dept when the cutover was required. They made the connection change in their switchbox in the road and swapped in a new meter.

 

[krieg]

Can you name one device , anything in the world that uses only 2 phases from a 3 phase supply.

I really appreciate you taking your time explaining things

I meant if you measured between two phases you should get 415 volts.

You actually do get two phase equipment like motors and some arc welders for instance, they use 400 volts.

 

[D tj]

The nearby township likely has better knowledge of electricity than some posters here.
OP please post your area and when you plan to er rewire, I wish to buy the newspapers then.
Oh, my crystal glass says an award likely incoming for you....Darwin.
There is a fairly useful saying, seldom observed: "Know your limitations" useful as life can flash by or bye.

 

[Geoff.D]

I'm actually not sure exactly why, but electricians are quite hesitant to do this. Maybe only if you're pulling lights, TV and small loads, but definitely not for entire DB's.

I understand my single phase DB well enough but I haven't read up on 3-phase and definitely don't know what phase balancing entails and how it works inside a single household.

Because it is against best practice, and the regulations, and they can lose their registration as electricians if they are complicit in poor installations.

 

[Crush]

The nearby township likely has better knowledge of electricity than some posters here.
OP please post your area and when you plan to er rewire, I wish to buy the newspapers then.
Oh, my crystal glass says an award likely incoming for you....Darwin.
There is a fairly useful saying, seldom observed: "Know your limitations" useful as life can flash by or bye.

Calm down there tiger... the whole point of the community is to learn and advise, not be complete experts on every single thread.

Hopefully the OP will heed warnings and just hire a qualified and competent person to do a proper 3-phase installation. If he chooses not to, yes, his Darwinian fate will be waiting but that's on him I guess...

 

[D tj]

@Crush, this is after all the internet ,not a crucifixion event, and yes he is asking, yet some of the advice....I was shocked....and I don't know much.
I wonder what Geoff.D's heat rate rose to?

 

[Geoff.D]

@Crush, this is after all the internet ,not a crucifixion event, and yes he is asking, yet some of the advice....I was shocked....and I don't know much.
I wonder what Geoff.D's heat rate rose to?

I bit my fingers off, went outside, threw turpentine at the neighbour's cat and swore at the moon.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

View attachment 1143728

I meant if you measured between two phases you should get 415 volts.

You actually do get two phase equipment like motors and some arc welders for instance, they use 400 volts.

Nope. Meters measure the RMS (Root Mean Square, 0.707) of the Peak to Peak voltage when measuring sine waves.

If you want electrical advice, pay for an electrician. This stuff is deadly when you don't know what you are doing.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Calm down there tiger... the whole point of the community is to learn and advise, not be complete experts on every single thread.

Hopefully the OP will heed warnings and just hire a qualified and competent person to do a proper 3-phase installation. If he chooses not to, yes, his Darwinian fate will be waiting but that's on him I guess...

The problem is the dangerous electrical advice given by other contributors here.

 

[krieg]

Nope. Meters measure the RMS (Root Mean Square, 0.707) of the Peak to Peak voltage when measuring sine waves.

If you want electrical advice, pay for an electrician. This stuff is deadly when you don't know what you are doing.

Are you talking about an electrical meter or measuring with a multimeter?

 

[krieg]

Any meter.

The only meter that you can use to see the peak voltage is an ossiliscope.

You will see that a quality multimeter will say True RMS.

Try and measure the output of non-sine wave inverter with a cheap multimeter - you will get voltage readings all over the show, where a Fluke is able to identify the square wave and indicate an accurate voltage reading.

The statement was the voltage between the peaks as per the diagram. I am not sure why you are jumping to oscilloscopes and inverters? The reason for the question which meter is because the above poster posted an incomplete formula relating to power usage or possibly vRMS I am not sure hence electrical meter.

 

[D tj]

Me thinks a few here type with white canes.
Shakespeare's "Tis the times plague when madmen lead the blind"
On MBB :"The blind are keen to lead the semi blind"

 

[Geoff.D]

Any meter.

The only meter that you can use to see the peak voltage is an ossiliscope.

You will see that a quality multimeter will say True RMS.

Try and measure the output of non-sine wave inverter with a cheap multimeter - you will get voltage readings all over the show, where a Fluke is able to identify the square wave and indicate an accurate voltage reading.

But you can calibrate a multimeter to display Peak Voltage --- it is just a multiplication exercise.

 

[Geoff.D]

Me thinks a few here type with white canes.
Shakespeare's "Tis the times plague when madmen lead the blind"
On MBB :"The blind are keen to lead the semi blind"

"In die land van die blindes is een oog koning"

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Are you talking about an electrical meter or measuring with a multimeter?

Any electrical meter, digital or analogue, multimeter or mounted on a panel, other than an oscilloscope measures RMS value and not PP value when measuring a sine wave.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Any meter.

The only meter that you can use to see the peak voltage is an ossiliscope.

You will see that a quality multimeter will say True RMS.

Try and measure the output of non-sine wave inverter with a cheap multimeter - you will get voltage readings all over the show, where a Fluke is able to identify the square wave and indicate an accurate voltage reading.

Oh snap. Answered before I saw your post.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Me thinks a few here type with white canes.
Shakespeare's "Tis the times plague when madmen lead the blind"
On MBB :"The blind are keen to lead the semi blind"

The shocking (excuse the pun) revelation is that this a tech site. Reading some of the replies here I'm not surprised that the Cape Town City Council insists on certificates of compliance for homes with renewable energy systems.

 

[Smugs]

Any meter.

The only meter that you can use to see the peak voltage is an ossiliscope.

You will see that a quality multimeter will say True RMS.

Try and measure the output of non-sine wave inverter with a cheap multimeter - you will get voltage readings all over the show, where a Fluke is able to identify the square wave and indicate an accurate voltage reading.

Actually my 30 year old Fluke 77 caught me out like that. I measured a UPS with it and thought it was faulty. Only later when I measured it with my 115 did the penny drop..

 

[Geoff.D]

The best multimeter ever made!

One of the intruments I missed the most when I had to give up my "official" toolkit.