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by PhantomGremlin 3052 days ago
In Europe, you have three phases (R,S,T) and neutral.

Is that everywhere, to every building?

In the USA, of necessity, power generation is three phase, large scale power distribution is three phase. What's confusing is that the previous discussion didn't differentiate between residential and commercial.

In USA residential areas nobody gets all three phases to their house or apartment. As discussed in previous comments, a house gets two hot wires and a neutral. In fact, to save money, sometimes entire neighborhoods only get one or two phases[1]: "spur lines" branching off the main line to provide power to side streets often carry only one or two phase wires, plus the neutral

In commercial and industrial settings it's common and necessary to deliver all three phases to the building. E.g. large electric motors require all three phases.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_pole#Power_distributio...

1 comments

Unless you are in a really remote place you have three phases. Yes. Our stoves are typically connected to it (obviously not to all phases at once).