Mike, you are a fortunate soul to have found this before the impending disaster! A friend of mine just lost his storage shed to a fire caused by faulting wiring.

 

All I'm gonna say is YIKES!!!
Good catch!

 

Nice pickup Mike,

Do you guys in US normally find it a problem running two voltages in the house wiring?

We only have to worry about 240v here in Australia?

James

 

Hi James:

Running two voltages in the house wiring is not a significant issue. Most loads are set up for the 120V voltage and plug into the usual sockets. A few loads (e.g. stove, clothes dryer, and workshop loads) have a different socket or are direct wired. Distribution panels (breaker panels) are designed to facilitate the dual system.

Cassandra

 

James;
If we only had 240 volts, there would be too many stupid people electrocuting themselves.

 

Mike, I would not like to try it, but 110 probably kicks like a mule, 240 kicks like a mustang......

Both will hurt if they hit you in the head...LOL

Are you suggesting that 110 volt is safer if you cross the poles?

James

 

James,

Any 240 Volt line can be broken down to two 120 Volt lines. The problem here, in the USA, is that we are running at 60 cycles (OOps, showing my age); I mean 60 Hertz. If we converted to 240/50 all the TV manufacturers would love it, since none of our older TVs would work right (NTSC thing)

Joe Z.

 

James,

Any 240 Volt line can be broken down to two 120 Volt lines. The problem here, in the USA, is that we are running at 60 cycles (OOps, showing my age); I mean 60 Hertz. If we converted to 240/50 all the TV manufacturers would love it, since none of our older TVs would work right (NTSC thing)

Joe Z.

Hi Joe:

With regards to modern day TVs, there is little likelihood that LCD, Plasma or LED set could care less about the input line frequency. Add in the HD or ATSC system and line frequency becomes even less important.

Now, all those clocks, motor loads and other frequency-dependent devices would be a problem. Decades ago (1950s, I think), Canada switched from 25 cycles to 60 cycles (that's before we got to Hertz), and all the motors had to be converted.

My father's clock in the living room was given to my parents by the hydro commission, to replace the old 25-cycle clock. Darn thing just keeps on going around -- over 50 years of reliable service!

Cassandra

 

The way US single-phase 240VAC works is that each pole is 120V to neutral (ground). They are just 180* out of phase so, if you measure the voltage between the two hots, you get 240VAC. With a 4-wire circuit (2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground) like you see in stoves, the device has both 120VAc and 240VAC available.