I need help understanding AC electricity and generators (1/3 phase)

[CalG]

I have several. They're just 3 triacs in a case with a single input.
Internet example:
View attachment 667370


Not sure the link below will satisfy your curiosity depending on in depth your "how" is, but it will at least show you connection schemes that will yield useful voltages.

https://www.power-tronics.com/help/wiring-diagrams/Terminal-Chart.pdf

You are speaking of the WRONG terminals. The load is easy, the CONTROL can not be poly phase. But there are "Zero Crossing relays". just not poly phase. ;-)

Regarding the single phase from poly phase, I'm being facetious.

 

[CalG]

Two-Phase Electrical Service – Continental Control Systems, LLC

We may just be going through a phase////

Are mobile generators center tapped?

Or is that the same as a wye configuration?

Does a mobile generator have a "high leg" / "stinger"? Power company approved!

The center tapped transformer my be likened to a corner grounded delta...

These appear to be important considerations when pulling single phase loads off a 3 phase generator.

Myself, I would just try to balance the draw so as not to exceed the ampacity of any wire, or derate the gen set accordingly.

Think of it as a rotary phase converter ...backwards ;-)

Hmm,, three wires plus a neutral/ ground.... how many combinations can I make.

I've got a little WinPower belt drive unit. 5KVA , DC excitation and even a 24 volt charging winding for the Mil spec starter battery.
6 wires. Pick and choose from the big ones ;-)

Sweet little unit.

 

[CobyRupert]

Sorry, I still don't understand what you are trying to say. When a single pair of wires comes into your property (Single Phase)to the transformer, nothing about phase relationship is revalent anymore as far as what voltages you see on the premises. That entire secondary winding is all running in unison. Nothing out of "phase" with anything else. You could throw some capacitors in there and THEN you would have varying phase relationships.

We’re talking about semantics.
Let’s try another approach: If I showed you an oscilloscope with two (120V) wave forms, and you DIDN’T know where they originated from (maybe it was a single phase center grounded transformer, maybe not) wouldn’t you say they’re 180 degrees out of phase (or 0 degrees, or 30 degrees, etc.. out of phase)?

I think the word “phase” is being used for two different things. There’s 1 phase (of 3 that are separated by 120 degrees), and then there’s the relationship of any two measured waveforms. In the above oscilloscope case, we’d say they’re 180 degrees out of phase.

 

[Industrial Toys]

For what it's worth. I run ALL my generators as 240Volts, no neutral connection. There is transformer on the generator side of the transfer switch, wired in ONE SIDE ONLY, like an AUTO TRANSFORMER, that makes my Neutral.

Generators all run totally balanced, and I can pull off full load on just one leg, without the generator seeing that at all. Comes in particularly usefull if I am running my little 3.7 Yanmar, but I haven't run that in years for back-up.

Just something to consider on the wiring of generators.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I knew got that from somewhere, but I'm ready to believe anything.

I wish i still had my oscope. I should shop for another some day.

My computer systems all have pure sine wave UPS's that clean/condition the power before passing it into the servers.

You might be surprised. Most computer UPS boxes output filthy power. Your computer doesn't care. A switching power supply will run fine on a square wave.
The big advantages of a UPS are the battery and the fact that the output is completely disconnected from the input so a lightning strike can't make it through the box.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

You can buy a transformer that will connect to a 480v. 3 phase source and convert it to 230v. single phase. A second transformer will step it down to 115v. if you need that. Since you have not purchased the genset, 480v. should not be a problem.

 

[Grumpycat]

You might be surprised. Most computer UPS boxes output filthy power. Your computer doesn't care. A switching power supply will run fine on a square wave.

Switching computer power supplies will happily run off DC. Cheap UPSs (and 12V inverters) output 120V square waves.

The big advantages of a UPS are the battery and the fact that the output is completely disconnected from the input so a lightning strike can't make it through the box.

Not the consumer UPSs. I had a data center with a 50 kVA Liebert 3-phase UPS like that. A high end 700 VA Best Power FerrUPS was close but still did not run full time off the battery as you suggest.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I love having APC UPS on my Computers. I don't worry about local lightning anymore, and don't have everything reboot during power flickers. BUT, I have to disconnect my LAN where lightning could still get in. Especially where it convertst to COAX and goes 500 feet up hill to a radio toer. I like solid LAN connections, but a backup WIFI system might not be a bad idea.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

So the 220v is 2x110v of single phase?

The reason I want to learn more is because at 10kw I’m generating just under what I want, I’d like to go 20kw, but I’m having a hard time finding anything that big that isn’t 3 phase or propane, and I’d prefer diesel since I have diesel tanks but no propane.

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[Larry Caldwell]

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The blurb is misleading. The link is actually to a 3-phase to 1-phase conversion. You need a transformer. Look at the Scott T transformer.