120v Single Leg???

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Besoeker said:
On this forum I have seen a number of faults attributed, rightly or wrongly, attributed to broken neutrals. Aslong as you have 120-0-120 there is always going to be the risk of puting 240V on a 120V appliaqnce.
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It's not as bad as it sounds. Many times you find the problem and have it corrected before there is much or even any damaged appliances. I have been there when the owner was unlucky and there was significant damage but that's not always the case.
 
Besoeker said:
On this forum I have seen a number of faults attributed, rightly or wrongly, attributed to broken neutrals. Aslong as you have 120-0-120 there is always going to be the risk of puting 240V on a 120V appliaqnce.
Click to expand...

growler said:
It's not as bad as it sounds. Many times you find the problem and have it corrected before there is much or even any damaged appliances. I have been there when the owner was unlucky and there was significant damage but that's not always the case.
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True on the service, you usually have some balance to the load and seldom ever get such an imbalance that you see near full 240 volts on one side. Open the neutral on a feeder the possible unbalance usually goes up, and open neutral on a multiwire branch circuit and it goes up even more.

The service or a feeder to a separate building also has a grounding electrode that may assist in keeping a path for the unbalance current.
 
growler said:
It's not as bad as it sounds. Many times you find the problem and have it corrected before there is much or even any damaged appliances. I have been there when the owner was unlucky and there was significant damage but that's not always the case.
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I'm not suggesting that it's always the case. Just questioning the comparison with the probability of a lightning strike.
 
Besoeker said:
I'm not suggesting that it's always the case. Just questioning the comparison with the probability of a lightning strike.
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I think I have probably had service calls more times for lightning damage then I have for lost neutral on the service conductors.
 
Besoeker said:
I'm not suggesting that it's always the case. Just questioning the comparison with the probability of a lightning strike.
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I have lost neutral once at my own home. But as far as the OP, why not run both legs to the panel and just use every other breaker space if he wants the whole load on one leg. Then he's got 240V available for future use if needed.
 
jumper said:
1 Lightning-lost computer modem
2 Lightning-lost microwave

3 Bad neutral- no damage, caught early. Was at the tranny connection.
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I have experienced neither as it happens. One for obvios reasons, the other probably geographical location and the inlusion of building lightning conductors.
 
Besoeker said:
I'm not suggesting that it's always the case. Just questioning the comparison with the probability of a lightning strike.
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I'd say at least on the order of 100's or 1000's to 1 for lightning vs. open neutral. Stuff gets damaged by lightning regularly but only every now and then by open neutral. This will be especially true in the lightning capital of the world: Florida. If you lived in an area where lightning strike occurance is low, the ratio will get much lower (or in an area with poor construction or maintenance).
 
mivey said:
I'd say at least on the order of 100's or 1000's to 1 for lightning vs. open neutral. Stuff gets damaged by lightning regularly but only every now and then by open neutral. This will be especially true in the lightning capital of the world: Florida. If you lived in an area where lightning strike occurance is low, the ratio will get much lower (or in an area with poor construction or maintenance).
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Agreed.
Where I live, fairly flat land about 50 miles north of London (not London Ontario :D)

Lightning is infrequent. Buildings have lightning conductors so the are shunted.

Lightning capital of the world?
I've been around a bit, ridden hard, and put up wet as the saying goes.
And seen some spectacular displays. Formosa, in the Far East, was particularly giving in tha respect.
But Jo'burg in the high veldt, 6000 feet above sea level had the right conditions. I remember sitting on my hotel balcony looking ovr the broad landscape. Lightning everywhere, many flashes at the same time. A spactle I was priviledged to enjoy.

Sliding surreptitiously back on topic..........we operate on wsingle phase so a lost neutral, while an inconvenience, Isnt the end of the world
 
Besoeker said:
Agreed.
Where I live, fairly flat land about 50 miles north of London (not London Ontario :D)

Lightning is infrequent. Buildings have lightning conductors so the are shunted.

Lightning capital of the world?
I've been around a bit, ridden hard, and put up wet as the saying goes.
And seen some spectacular displays. Formosa, in the Far East, was particularly giving in tha respect.
But Jo'burg in the high veldt, 6000 feet above sea level had the right conditions. I remember sitting on my hotel balcony looking ovr the broad landscape. Lightning everywhere, many flashes at the same time. A spactle I was priviledged to enjoy.

Sliding surreptitiously back on topic..........we operate on wsingle phase so a lost neutral, while an inconvenience, Isnt the end of the world
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Our world anyway. Rwanda is #1 in the real world. I'm not sure of the actual world ranking but Florida has to be up there.
 
I could see there being a place with more lightning then what Florida gets, but maybe not a place with the population like Florida has, which means less man made things to get damaged by those lightning strikes.
 
kwired said:
I could see there being a place with more lightning then what Florida gets, but maybe not a place with the population like Florida has, which means less man made things to get damaged by those lightning strikes.
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Does florida actually get much lightning over the course of a year? I have worked out in the midwest; Montana, Nevada and it seems there lightening protection systems are a lot more sophisticated than say Florida or Georgia. Most of the times in those places was usually right after a bad storm hit. But here in Ny, lightning is a second thought after flooding and snow storms.... I guess its location based.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
truck41trouble said:
Does florida actually get much lightning over the course of a year? I have worked out in the midwest; Montana, Nevada and it seems there lightening protection systems are a lot more sophisticated than say Florida or Georgia. Most of the times in those places was usually right after a bad storm hit. But here in Ny, lightning is a second thought after flooding and snow storms.... I guess its location based.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
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I think FL has the highest occurrences of lightning of all 50 States. I don't know if that necessarily means they have the most strikes to objects on the ground though.
 
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