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Rank: Super Veteran Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 11790

Alright, to anyone who's dealt with electrical work before, have you ever heard of two-phase? My dad swears up and down that's what he's powering their hot tub with, but that's the weird part, there's no such thing! It can only be single-phase or three-phase. Unless he's got two single-phase lines going into it, I just don't get where he's coming up with that whole 2-phase bit, any ideas?

And just for the fun of it, here's some electrical trivia:

Six wires are going into a box. The box houses a switch, what color are the wires and where do they go?

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/brigwyn/ · Royal Member of BonBon Joined: 04 Oct 2008 Posts: 2914

I took electrical installation at college, however I believe American electrics are different from British. Not just voltage but amps too.
As for the wiring question: It should be Red/Brown for the positive wire, Blue for negative wire and green/green and yellow stripe for the earth wire. But again I believe the U.S. has different wiring codes.

Rank: Super Veteran Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 11790

Well, we're American, so we like being different. Tongue

Our normal voltages range from 110-120 on outlets, then for three-phase, it could be either 230-240 for low voltage or 460-480 for high voltage. And yes, once again, we're different just to be different. xP Our hot/positive wires are normally black but can be red/orange/brown/yellow, depending on the phase. Our neutral/negative wires are usually white or grey, and our ground/earth wire is always green or simply bare.

Gotta love America. Problem child of the world.... nevermind, North Korea is. America is the red-headed step child that just wants to be different. x.x

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/brigwyn/ · Royal Member of BonBon Joined: 04 Oct 2008 Posts: 2914

Considering Britain is smaller then some states it is not surprising we are a little more standardized. Domestic wall outlet voltage is 230/40 and of course 480/500+ for the heavier industrial usage,
It was not until the mid 1930's it became standardized across the country. Up to then you had different voltages, amps even plugs and sockets varying from county to county and even city to city depending on who was supplying the electricity.

Rank: Super Veteran Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 11790

Yeah, though we do have a standard code for the whole country. Then each state/county/city can have their own codes, though they're always just making things stricter then the national codes.