110/220

Little Bill

Little Bill

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Tennessee NEC:2017
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Semi-Retired Electrician
I was politely trying to correct someone on the proper nominal voltage we use today. Telling him that it is 120/240. The person lives in Michigan and he said in his area, they still have 110/220.
Can anyone confirm this?
 
I cannot but that terminology ended at least 50 years ago. Ask him to show you a current photo of a meter with the voltages.
 
Could be an old private poco that’s not tied to the grid. There is a college in Atlanta that has their own utility, and generating plant, never checked to see what voltage they were using.
 
I know of no major power company, in Michigan, that does not use the ANSI standard voltages, such as 120/240V.

110/220 disappeared almost 70 years ago when it was replaced by 115/230V.

People need to stop quoting a stupid movie comment as fact.
 
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Little Bill said:
I was politely trying to correct someone on the proper nominal voltage we use today. Telling him that it is 120/240. The person lives in Michigan and he said in his area, they still have 110/220.
Can anyone confirm this?
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Ask him whether their high-leg deltas have 190 or 208 volts on the high leg.
 
I just don't worry about it. I know what they mean when they say it and I just keep moving. There's a lot of stuff to argue in the world and this just isn't one of them, in my view.
 
infinity said:
And around here if you test at the meter it's now closer to 125/250.
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But per the NEC, via ANSI, the nominal voltaged used to name the system is still 120/240.

I don't think i will ever forget this fact, after missing it on an exam back in 78.
Particularly because I created this exam question in 1977.
 
JBDPCA said:
But per the NEC, via ANSI, the nominal voltaged used to name the system is still 120/240.
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Correct and professionals should use the proper terminology by referring to the nominal voltage of the systems. I remember when I started in the business I found it confusing because old timers would say 110 or 220 even when the buldings had Wye systems.
 
infinity said:
Correct and professionals should use the proper terminology by referring to the nominal voltage of the systems. I remember when I started in the business I found it confusing because old timers would say 110 or 220 even when the buldings had Wye systems.
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Or 440.
 
norcal said:
How bout 110/208? :(
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I've heard that one too. An old timer who's good friend still says that. I'm too embarrassed to correct him. When I hear an apprentice say 110 or 220 I tell them that they will never say 110 or 220 again in their entire life. :)
 
CoolWill said:
I just don't worry about it. I know what they mean when they say it and I just keep moving. There's a lot of stuff to argue in the world and this just isn't one of them, in my view.
Click to expand...
I don't worry about it when I hear it from non-trade people. The guy I was trying to correct was supposedly a professional. He was even using the 110/220 voltage in calculations and telling others to look for that voltage when checking with a meter.
 
I have never seen a POCO in the US deliver '220' or 220y127 as a nominal voltage.
If a POCO wanted to phase out delta banks on a network without dropping 240 delta customers all the way to 208 they could adopt 127y/220 as a nominal voltage.
 
When the standards came into being, legacy systems were not required to change, which is why the “utilization voltage” to which devices are designed is 115/230 +-10%, so that they can handle being connected to legacy systems. But 110/220 is no longer a standard secondary for utility transformers. I suppose it’s remotely possible that they have a system where the local grid has not needed a transformer changed in 70+ years, or the utility had a lot of transformers in stock and has just kept using them. But it would be circumstantial, not a deliberate decision to be different from the rest of the country…

People love to think they are unique though, I’ve heard this several times; “Nope, we still have 110 (or 440) here, always have.” In a couple of occasions I have shown them on a meter that they have around 120V, (or 480) yet they just said “Well sometimes it climbs a little high in the afternoon (or morning, or whatever time it is)…” Yeah, OK dude, you are a special case…

I have one going on right now with a VFD where they replaced an older one and the motor current is higher on the new VFD than it was on the old one. Turned out they had the new VFD programmed as 440V output, “because that’s what we have here”, even though they were told to program it to the motor nameplate voltage. It wasn’t true anyway, they had 480/277, but they kept insisting it was 440…
 
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