European commercial power question

[vavet]

In the US, most houses have two 120V legs. We can use 120V or 240V (leg to leg), but still only has 120V from each leg to ground.
Commercial/industrial service often has 3 phase power. I think this provides higher voltages (480v?) and 208V instead of 240V.

Europe (and other places) have 230V to ground. Do they also have 3 phase power? What would that voltage be? Do they have the equivalent of using 2 of the 3 legs that would give some interim voltage similar to out 208V? Do they have high voltage appliances like electric ovens, water heaters that use 480V or are they still 240V?

I'm not asking because I'm planning to do some European wiring. It's more of a curiosity.

 

[larry_g]

Voltage & Frequency by Country — 50Hz vs 60Hz Reference

Complete reference: voltage, frequency (Hz), and plug type for every country. Understand 50Hz vs 60Hz differences for international generator applications.

www.generatorsource.com

It varies by country, see above.

 

[wssix99]

Yes, all areas have 3 phase power because that is what comes off the generators at the power plants.

If I recall correctly, everything runs off of 240V, since they are already there. The bigger challenge is using 240V for small devices. That's why the plugs and sockets are all designed (with deep sockets/wells) to contain the sparking that happens when using them.

If you want to really blow your mind, check out the ring circuits they use to do some wiring in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit

 

[Norcal]

It's all derived off 400Y/230V, in some places only 230V is supplied, other places like Germany are 400/230V, and electric ranges are 400V 3Ø, The EU harmonized everything to 400/230V, some countries were 380/220V & others like the UK (at the time in the EU) & France were 415/240V, & Ireland was 400/230V, so they changed it to 400/230V, the voltages never changed but the allowable range did. BTW the UK still uses 32A ring circuits, it's why their plugs are fused, in my opinion ring circuits are archaic like our using the neutral to ground the frames of cooking equipment & clothes dryers, which is slowly being phased out as it is only allowed in existing installations.

 

[MBfreak]

Two countries in Europe do it their own way. Norway of course, and the UK
In the UK standard supply is 230 V single phase P/N/protective earth incoming , often 100A.
House are wired in ring with just a few fuses. Quite common with switch and fuse in the wall outlet, sometimes also in the plug.
That said, their 230 V plug is the best of all I have seen. Three pins located so that phase, neutral and earth are defined and impossible to reverse.
In Sweden we have a 3 pole "earthed " outlet/plug and a 2 pole "unearthed" outlet/plug.
The unearthed plug can NOT be plugged in in an earthed outlet. But the earthed plug fits perfectly in an unearthed socket.
Go figure

Ola

 

[Milton Shaw]

Some countries have it even more mixed up than Europe. Japan's east coast follows the USA standard of 120-120 -240 60 HZ with both legs. The west coast of Japan follows the English wiring that is mentioned above that is not mentioned as being 50 HZ, but it is. That's why they had some much trouble with power outages when they had the tsunami and turned off their reactors for a while. That would be one crazy mess to move and nothing electrical works

 

[Norcal]

Some countries have it even more mixed up than Europe. Japan's east coast follows the USA standard of 120-120 -240 60 HZ with both legs. The west coast of Japan follows the English wiring that is mentioned above that is not mentioned as being 50 HZ, but it is. That's why they had some much trouble with power outages when they had the tsunami and turned off their reactors for a while. That would be one crazy mess to move and nothing electrical works

Japan is actually 100/200 volts, but the crazy 50/60 Hz is true

 

[Metal-Marc]

In the US, most houses have two 120V legs. We can use 120V or 240V (leg to leg), but still only has 120V from each leg to ground.

It's 120V to neutral.