Harmonics

[joeyww12000]

Are harmonics the RESULT of opposite phase waveforms peaking at the same time or are they opposite waveforms peaking at the same time? What exactly causes this to happen? Are electronic ballasts the only thing capable of doing this? I didnt know to put all my service conductors in the same nipple going into one of my panels, I placed my neutral in a seperate nipple seperate from my 3 phase conductors and ground simply due to convenience because of the neutral bar placement. One of the other electricians said it would mess the harmonics up and I thought "what does that have to do with harmonics?" I did find out this was against code, but was he right about the harmonics?

 

[roger]

The reason for keeping the neutral in the same nipple as it's ungrounded conductors is not for reasons associated with odd order harmonics, it for inductive heating, EMF issues, and is required by 300.3(B).

For an overview of Harmonics see this article

Roger