| > How does one connect a lamp to 3-phase power? You typically connect 1/3 of lamps on one phase, one third on another and so on. In the UK we use a 230V single phase system for most things (industrial/commercial often use 400V) (if all three phases are in use it's 400V - you may see it as 415V but we harmonised with Europe to 400V) so lighting expects that 230V anyway, you still have a common ground, you just run the live for each phase to the lamp/light. Power delivery to homes is in effect a single phase out of a three phase supply with each house (often but not always) wired in sequence, so house 1 is Phase 1, house 2 is Phase 2, house 3 is Phase 3, house 4 is phase 1 and repeat. We have standard colors for this as well (as do most jurisdictions), neutral is always blue but the phases are Brown, Black and Grey When I trained as an industrial electrician they where different colors, they changed in 2006 so that just makes me feel old (used to be Red, Yellow, Blue with Black for Neutral). |
Never even thought about the fact that different regions may have different colour standards. This explains some of the power cables I've torn apart over the years and the strange colours I found inside!
> When I trained as an industrial electrician they where different colors, they changed in 2006 so that just makes me feel old (used to be Red, Yellow, Blue with Black for Neutral).
Making a mental note of that one... a black neutral would be a nasty surprise coming from North America.