Generator Question

[Egon]

Ret:
Franz has already answered your " stupid" question.

What gets real dangerous is when you get just enough wisdom to not be stupid but not enough to really understand. Thens when you really get in trouble. I'm constantly in that state.

Egon

 

[Anonymous Poster]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Stupid is also runnin over a gator on the road, and then walkin back to see if he's hurt, and gettin close to the front end of the gator. That definitely has to be the textbook definition of stupid. )</font>

How about this one? Guy I know worked in a Florida boatyard. On weekends he sometimes went to the yard with his boy and fished off of the canal bank.

One saturday on their way to the boatyard, a baby 'gator about a foot long ran across the road in front of them. They stopped, and the boy grabbed it up to show around the boatyard (illegal, but that's not the point).

At the yard, he walked around showing the little 'gator to all the boat owners. One of them tried to pet the 'gator. The little guy chomped down on the offending finger with predictable results. The idiot actually tried to blame the kid, until the rest of the boat owners shamed him out of it.

It takes all kinds, I guess.

SnowRidge

 

[shado]

This 'phase' business has been bugging me since it got posted, & I should have known the answer pretty quickly since I hope to get picked for the 'millionaire' show, but I'm pretty certain of it. Nope, that's not quite what the fella was asking. The two 'hot legs' of 220 VAC are 60 deg. out of phase with each other. You're right about the voltage measurement & the little diagram, but the two sine waves are not in sync with each other.
J.W.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Sorry Shado, but you are wrong.
The 220 volt legs are on the same leg of the Delta or Wye, with the neutral run to ground from the centertap of the transformer.
Phases are 120 degrees apart.
This page should help you understand.
home.att.net/~benmiller/elecsys.htm

 

[shado]

I looked over that reference that you listed, It looks as if I may have the degree measurement off, but I think that applies to sources that have a three-phase supply. A residential source, as it is tapped off the step-down transformer on the pole, looks as if the sine waves would be in sync, whereas two legs from a three-phase source would be some degrees apart. So you would be right in that manner. That reference really did not have anything showing phase relationship, but it took quite some time also to get mine squared away with the wife.
J.W.

 

[RET]

So the answers are : in phase, 60 or 120 deg out of phase, or none of the above. Oh well, not important. I was just curious.

Anyway, I went out this weekend and got myself 120 ft of 10/3 SO cable and made two 60 ft extension cords. One with a 30A twist lock plug and one with a 20A plug. I tried them both out with my shop air compressor plugged into them....worked fine. No sparks. No smoke. Gen. still working. And I didn't get fried.

Now I'm ready for the hurricane season and, better yet, am ready for LSU fall football tailgating!

RET