Ubiquitous and archaic. Oh, wrong show... Joe, you are an absolute star - clear, comprehensive and thoroughly watchable. Whoever writes your script, bravo! If I see your face on an eFIXX video I know it is a must see. Happy Christmas to the eFIXX team.
Oh mate, what a nice thing to say, thank you. All my own words this one! 😂 I made this video a while back now so don't remember using those words at all! 🤔😂 Thanks again.
Nice video! However, I think you missed out on mentioning one of the biggest benefits of 3-phase in a residential application; the ability to serve 3 high amp loads with a single 5 core cable. e.g. My Washing machine and tumble dryer used to be served off a single circuit. If they pulled their maximum load simultaneously, they'd trip the fuse. Annoyingly they were connected to a single phase in a 3-phase isolator, leaving the other 2 phases unused. I got a separate socket added and connected to another phase into the isolator, and never had any trips since. The other part of 3-phase that took me a long time to get my head around was that when multiple loads are on, only the "remainder" current is sent down the neutral.
Controls engineer here, frequently work in old, 'new' and mixed electrical panels. Also work with imported HVAC and other equipment that internally uses US/Chinese/god-only-knows-what colour schemes for it's power wiring. Mix that in with an assortment of colours used in the control and signal wiring and it can get real fun real quick!
I'm a total idiot when it comes to electrical stuff but even I could follow most of this! Great presentation and seems you already predicted all the questions idiots like me would think to ask.
Yet another fantastic video gentlemen. Once again full of great information in conjunction with Lewden Palazzoli. Well I'm off to get my "free" CPD certificate. Merry Christmas to you all at eFIXX. See you in 2025 👍
A brilliant explanation. The trickier bits like power factors and harmonics are best left, however, I might mention phase rotation as I've come across quite a few outlets with different rotations causing motors to rotate the wrong way.
Nice vid. Oz uses red, white, blue for line and black for the neutral. Change occurred at the same time as green/yellow was confirmed as earth conductor.
I found that fascinating; thank you. One question that wasn't answered was "why three phases?" Why not four, or six? My assumption is that three gives satisfactory smoothness of power delivery and that the law of diminishing returns makes adding phases redundant. My assumption is probably wrong. I've been wrong before.
6 phase power could be made from 3 phase power very easily. Lust one 3 phase transformer, except secondary coills are center-taped and those center taps connected together as neutral in 6 phase system. 4 phase - cold be made from 3 phase almost as easy. In theory 4 phase system offers 4/3 the amount of power vs 3 phase system for 4/3 of conductors and 6 phase system allows 2x power for 2x conductors (almost perfectly matching 2x 3phase transmission lines). 3 phase system has a major advatage: all phase-phase voltages are the same that simplified wiring and connecions.
@@volodumurkalunyak4651 If you had a 4 phase system, it could be wrongly wired so that the phases don't "rotate". It's impossible to wire a 3 phase system so it doesn't rotate. It might rotate the wrong way, but it will still rotate. 3 phases are also the most efficient.
For distribution purposes, if the loads at the consumer end are well balanced across the 3 phases, the neutral conductor has a small current returned along it compared to what is actually consumed in terms of watts. Unlike single phase where both conductors have to carry the full current. By adding 2 conductors for 3 phases compared to single phase or DC, you get a big uplift in the amount of power that can be transmitted, more than say having 2 thick cables or running 2 separate single phases. Adding more phases past 3 phase will start increasing the amount of conductor material you need again in your distribution system.
In Germany the colors have also changed several times. In very old installations there was black phase and red PEN. Sometimes gray was used for N and red for PE. The reverse sequence has also been used by laypeople. Or was it an Englishman? Then new colors appeared at the beginning of the 1970s: phases of black, brown, black. Blue for neutral and yellow-green for PE. But it was often difficult to distinguish the black cable next to the brown cable from the black cable next to the blue one. Then came the uniform standard for Europe: brown, black, gray for the phases. Blue for N and yellow-green for PE. It's very difficult when you use all the colors in an old building just the way you like. Often the only solution is to completely rewire.
Switching from black-brown-black to brown-black-gray back and forth is really a pain, but replacing all wires isn't even possible if you don't want to rebuild the whole house. At least the old wires with the red PEN are getting rare and should always be replaced.
The diagram/animation starting at 2:02 appears to be wrong. If the 3 colored circles on the rotating stator each represent a phase coil, the voltage of each coil when passing directly in front of a magnet pole should be zero, aka the zero crossing point. In the animation the voltage reaches its peak as each colored phase circle passes a magnet. In reality, peak phase voltage is reached when *furthest* away from a magnet pole!
Would you care to tackle the subject of multi speed, multi winding motors? Perhaps covering the details of the effects of phase voltage on motor speed and torque and why a motor may have the same voltage rating in both star and delta. Fun to be had for all the family.
Oh it brings back all those memories at Uni... interestingly, I'm seeing a few three phase from the 1960s where each phase is feeding a different building/house. Is there anything to watch out for there?
Its good to add that's the power losses in long power transmission cables at a lower voltage would be detrimental and result in heating losses in the cable.. however by stepping up the voltage cures this problem because the current is inversely proportional to it. So to keep the same Power the practice is to step up the voltage with oil filled transformers will lower heating losses and a thinner conductive cable can be used
Guess we here in the states are kind of lucky as far as conductor colors. They have been pretty much static for decades. Single phase here is most always residential, we never have 3 phase in the ground or on the poles in residential areas. We have 120/240Vac at 60Hz with the colors being Black for L1, Red for L2, and White for Neutral. Green and sometimes bare is ground/ Earth. Commercial/ Industrial is 120/208Vac with Blue being added in for L3. We also have higher voltage for commercial 277/480Vac. Our colors change to allow for differentiation since the two coexist in commercial. Brown for L1, Orange for L2, Yellow for L3, and Gray for the Neutral. We step the 480Vac down to 208Vac for convenience outlets. Etc. Some services are 480 delta with no neutral, but most are Wye. At the research facility where I work as an Electrician, we have allot of European equipment installed so there is more than a passing familiarity with your standards required. We have alot of crossover in devices used for our equipment.
Many electricians improperly divide phases to integrated stove: cooking surface uses two phases and oven uses one phase. But cooking surface uses brown, black, blue and yellow-green wires; oven uses brown, blue and yellow-green wires - as result many electricians connect brown wire from oven to brown wire from line cable and leave grey wire without any connection, which causes circuit breaker to trip because brown wire carrying oven with cooking surface and grey wire is unloaded. It is useful to explain why brown wire from oven should be connected to grey wire from line cable in next video.
There's three lives. One neutral. Ignore the green and yellow one, it seems to work without it. If you lick any of the three,.it will hurt a bit. Touching one and licking any of the others, it will hurt a lot. To absolutely make sure you have isolated all three lives, chuck a bucket of water over all of them. After the flash, bang and steam has settled down, check for voltage using the previously itemised methods. If it doesn't hurt when you lick a phase wire, it's off.
I have a question. I have a three phase home, but all my L phase lines are brown. Shoulndt i be seeing a mix of brown gray and black all over the house?
But why 3-phase? Originally the industry considered 12-phases, but compromised on 3-phases, whatever the number of phases, the requirement is to transport 3 times the energy per unit of time; as simple as that.
@@zaxmaxlax here is a full explanation, 3 phase systems are used as you can split loads across all 3 phases, use 3 phase motors which have less of a failure rate compared to single phase motors which uses a starter capacitor which fails. You can use 3 phase solar inverters to feed back 3 phases. You can find that 3 phase versions of items such as air conditioners will last longer as there is less components in use compared to single phase. Finally, 3 phase is just more versatile.
What i tell apprentices. 12+12=20.8,+12=0 and thats voltage And amps is 15+15=12,+15=0 unless the phase is messed up, you can always safely make un balanced resistive loads (like multiple outlets on differentbrakers), without burning up the "identifed" "balance" or more normally called the neutral wire. Which is what we do in comercial all the time to reduce cost and pipe size
Whilst not a requirement, it does seem sensible to add a label on an installation where you know, from the CU, that you have mixed colours. I professional with know this but a DIY er will not
I don’t quite understand how the delta at 4.00 is connected to the outside world as they just all appear to be connected together in one big loop, where the star set up has 3 conductors not connected which I assume go and feed the outside world!
That’s just how the diagram is, in simplistic terms - if the outgoing wires were connected to the end of the star then in delta there would be a connection on the points of the delta triangle to connect to
I remember hearing (years ago) that DC down a wire would cause electromigration on the wire and cause it to fail, but this wouldn't happen with AC, and that was one reason for using AC. That may be a load of rubbish - what do you think? If power is shared between countries via a DC link then I assume it is a load of rubbish! Also, it might be worth commenting that it's the magnitude of the current that causes loss in the cable, so if you can transmit the power at a much higher voltage, and thus at a much lower current, you significantly reduce the loss in the cable. I think that is the main benefit to transmitting at 10's of kilovolts - again, I'd love your thoughts on this. Cheers :)
It is a thing even in AC, if you see very old installations like 30+ yo, its only the phases that are corroded. That green stuff that comes from copper.
I didn't know that _we_ were responsible for the colour harmonisation. I'll add that to my argument book when someone moans about Europe. That said, my autistic brain likes colour and the older colours are growing on me for the sole reason of them looking nicer.
For transmission we use AC because of heating over long runs. DC makes more heat because the the power never lowers or is at 0V onces every 30th of a second (America) And because of how cheap solid state transformers are, which only work on AC. higher voltage means more room for volt drop
DNOs call the new colours by the old colours. Brown is red, white/yellow is black and so on. These habits have been passed down from the old boys down to the new lads and lasses
The EU was very much led by the UK in many fields of harmonisation, medicines, healthcare equipment as well as electrical standards and we were sorely and sadly missed post Brexit.
The CE marks that we used from the EU were a nightmare, because the 4 digit code could crossover. the biggest problem was in medical products. The CE code was also the accrediting organisation, not the product. We accepted CE-0086 for safety protective products, so we had to be careful. The most amusing one was condoms, where imported products were using the same CE as balloons, where a one in ten failure rate was acceptable. Endless jokes ensued about CE-0086. If you were a builder, you had the same code (safety) on your condom, your boots and your hard hat. Most people knew which one was which, but one site sent out a memo that condoms where not acceptable to wear as hard hats.
@@JimWhitaker Didn't think of that. But I don't think I've ever met a colour-blind Electrician either, at least that I'm aware of. Wouldn't being colour-blind make the job very difficult?
Mix reg codes is verry common in my sector of maintenance engineering . Even we still have to learn and go back to 60s to figure some buildings out . Be good if you could mention why tri rated is used in 3phz pannles for those of you dont know wh
I wish I'd had you teaching Electrical Principles at college back in the mid-1990s - this is much more digestible!
Thanks for the fantastic comment 👍🏻
Ubiquitous and archaic. Oh, wrong show... Joe, you are an absolute star - clear, comprehensive and thoroughly watchable. Whoever writes your script, bravo! If I see your face on an eFIXX video I know it is a must see. Happy Christmas to the eFIXX team.
Oh mate, what a nice thing to say, thank you. All my own words this one!
😂 I made this video a while back now so don't remember using those words at all! 🤔😂 Thanks again.
Bravo guys, quality training material!
Nice video! However, I think you missed out on mentioning one of the biggest benefits of 3-phase in a residential application; the ability to serve 3 high amp loads with a single 5 core cable. e.g. My Washing machine and tumble dryer used to be served off a single circuit. If they pulled their maximum load simultaneously, they'd trip the fuse. Annoyingly they were connected to a single phase in a 3-phase isolator, leaving the other 2 phases unused. I got a separate socket added and connected to another phase into the isolator, and never had any trips since.
The other part of 3-phase that took me a long time to get my head around was that when multiple loads are on, only the "remainder" current is sent down the neutral.
Controls engineer here, frequently work in old, 'new' and mixed electrical panels. Also work with imported HVAC and other equipment that internally uses US/Chinese/god-only-knows-what colour schemes for it's power wiring. Mix that in with an assortment of colours used in the control and signal wiring and it can get real fun real quick!
Have seen chinese 3 phase stuff wired Red White Black
I'm a total idiot when it comes to electrical stuff but even I could follow most of this! Great presentation and seems you already predicted all the questions idiots like me would think to ask.
Yet another fantastic video gentlemen. Once again full of great information in conjunction with Lewden Palazzoli. Well I'm off to get my "free" CPD certificate. Merry Christmas to you all at eFIXX. See you in 2025 👍
A brilliant explanation. The trickier bits like power factors and harmonics are best left, however, I might mention phase rotation as I've come across quite a few outlets with different rotations causing motors to rotate the wrong way.
Nice vid. Oz uses red, white, blue for line and black for the neutral. Change occurred at the same time as green/yellow was confirmed as earth conductor.
Excellent video. Really good subject matter. Helpfull. Here is a merit.
Brilliant video as usual
I found that fascinating; thank you.
One question that wasn't answered was "why three phases?" Why not four, or six? My assumption is that three gives satisfactory smoothness of power delivery and that the law of diminishing returns makes adding phases redundant.
My assumption is probably wrong. I've been wrong before.
And I was always told it was balanced.
6 phase power could be made from 3 phase power very easily. Lust one 3 phase transformer, except secondary coills are center-taped and those center taps connected together as neutral in 6 phase system.
4 phase - cold be made from 3 phase almost as easy.
In theory 4 phase system offers 4/3 the amount of power vs 3 phase system for 4/3 of conductors and 6 phase system allows 2x power for 2x conductors (almost perfectly matching 2x 3phase transmission lines).
3 phase system has a major advatage: all phase-phase voltages are the same that simplified wiring and connecions.
@@volodumurkalunyak4651 If you had a 4 phase system, it could be wrongly wired so that the phases don't "rotate". It's impossible to wire a 3 phase system so it doesn't rotate. It might rotate the wrong way, but it will still rotate. 3 phases are also the most efficient.
For distribution purposes, if the loads at the consumer end are well balanced across the 3 phases, the neutral conductor has a small current returned along it compared to what is actually consumed in terms of watts. Unlike single phase where both conductors have to carry the full current. By adding 2 conductors for 3 phases compared to single phase or DC, you get a big uplift in the amount of power that can be transmitted, more than say having 2 thick cables or running 2 separate single phases. Adding more phases past 3 phase will start increasing the amount of conductor material you need again in your distribution system.
In Germany the colors have also changed several times. In very old installations there was black phase and red PEN. Sometimes gray was used for N and red for PE. The reverse sequence has also been used by laypeople.
Or was it an Englishman?
Then new colors appeared at the beginning of the 1970s: phases of black, brown, black. Blue for neutral and yellow-green for PE. But it was often difficult to distinguish the black cable next to the brown cable from the black cable next to the blue one.
Then came the uniform standard for Europe: brown, black, gray for the phases. Blue for N and yellow-green for PE.
It's very difficult when you use all the colors in an old building just the way you like. Often the only solution is to completely rewire.
Switching from black-brown-black to brown-black-gray back and forth is really a pain, but replacing all wires isn't even possible if you don't want to rebuild the whole house.
At least the old wires with the red PEN are getting rare and should always be replaced.
The diagram/animation starting at 2:02 appears to be wrong. If the 3 colored circles on the rotating stator each represent a phase coil, the voltage of each coil when passing directly in front of a magnet pole should be zero, aka the zero crossing point. In the animation the voltage reaches its peak as each colored phase circle passes a magnet. In reality, peak phase voltage is reached when *furthest* away from a magnet pole!
Would you care to tackle the subject of multi speed, multi winding motors?
Perhaps covering the details of the effects of phase voltage on motor speed and torque and why a motor may have the same voltage rating in both star and delta.
Fun to be had for all the family.
Oh it brings back all those memories at Uni... interestingly, I'm seeing a few three phase from the 1960s where each phase is feeding a different building/house. Is there anything to watch out for there?
Its good to add that's the power losses in long power transmission cables at a lower voltage would be detrimental and result in heating losses in the cable.. however by stepping up the voltage cures this problem because the current is inversely proportional to it. So to keep the same Power the practice is to step up the voltage with oil filled transformers will lower heating losses and a thinner conductive cable can be used
Great information. Not an electchicken but this was very helpful. Thank you.
An advantage of the old colours is that they were easier to distinguish in poor lighting.
Love this content
Thank you! 😃
Very good !
Thanks
Guess we here in the states are kind of lucky as far as conductor colors. They have been pretty much static for decades. Single phase here is most always residential, we never have 3 phase in the ground or on the poles in residential areas. We have 120/240Vac at 60Hz with the colors being Black for L1, Red for L2, and White for Neutral. Green and sometimes bare is ground/ Earth. Commercial/ Industrial is 120/208Vac with Blue being added in for L3. We also have higher voltage for commercial 277/480Vac. Our colors change to allow for differentiation since the two coexist in commercial. Brown for L1, Orange for L2, Yellow for L3, and Gray for the Neutral. We step the 480Vac down to 208Vac for convenience outlets. Etc. Some services are 480 delta with no neutral, but most are Wye. At the research facility where I work as an Electrician, we have allot of European equipment installed so there is more than a passing familiarity with your standards required. We have alot of crossover in devices used for our equipment.
Many electricians improperly divide phases to integrated stove: cooking surface uses two phases and oven uses one phase. But cooking surface uses brown, black, blue and yellow-green wires; oven uses brown, blue and yellow-green wires - as result many electricians connect brown wire from oven to brown wire from line cable and leave grey wire without any connection, which causes circuit breaker to trip because brown wire carrying oven with cooking surface and grey wire is unloaded.
It is useful to explain why brown wire from oven should be connected to grey wire from line cable in next video.
There's three lives. One neutral. Ignore the green and yellow one, it seems to work without it. If you lick any of the three,.it will hurt a bit. Touching one and licking any of the others, it will hurt a lot. To absolutely make sure you have isolated all three lives, chuck a bucket of water over all of them. After the flash, bang and steam has settled down, check for voltage using the previously itemised methods. If it doesn't hurt when you lick a phase wire, it's off.
Red White and Blue is still the standard here in Australia.
I have a question. I have a three phase home, but all my L phase lines are brown. Shoulndt i be seeing a mix of brown gray and black all over the house?
But why 3-phase? Originally the industry considered 12-phases, but compromised on 3-phases, whatever the number of phases, the requirement is to transport 3 times the energy per unit of time; as simple as that.
The reason for three phase is that it minimises the amount of copper needed to carry the power.
Thanks for commenting. 😊
Nope. The reason is because everything that produces AC electricity(except solar) relies on a 3 phase motor.
@@zaxmaxlax here is a full explanation, 3 phase systems are used as you can split loads across all 3 phases, use 3 phase motors which have less of a failure rate compared to single phase motors which uses a starter capacitor which fails.
You can use 3 phase solar inverters to feed back 3 phases.
You can find that 3 phase versions of items such as air conditioners will last longer as there is less components in use compared to single phase.
Finally, 3 phase is just more versatile.
Nope again! It's DC For maximum power with minimum copper. Look at the HVDC interconnectors in power transmission.
@@bobashby280 with extreme heat*
What i tell apprentices.
12+12=20.8,+12=0 and thats voltage
And amps is 15+15=12,+15=0
unless the phase is messed up, you can always safely make un balanced resistive loads (like multiple outlets on differentbrakers), without burning up the "identifed" "balance" or more normally called the neutral wire. Which is what we do in comercial all the time to reduce cost and pipe size
Whilst not a requirement, it does seem sensible to add a label on an installation where you know, from the CU, that you have mixed colours. I professional with know this but a DIY er will not
I don’t quite understand how the delta at 4.00 is connected to the outside world as they just all appear to be connected together in one big loop, where the star set up has 3 conductors not connected which I assume go and feed the outside world!
That’s just how the diagram is, in simplistic terms - if the outgoing wires were connected to the end of the star then in delta there would be a connection on the points of the delta triangle to connect to
@ thanks, I thought as much
13:38 why my calculator gives a different result 23000 divided by 400 multiple by x3 =172.5
Times by the square root of 3 (1.73) not by 3
I remember hearing (years ago) that DC down a wire would cause electromigration on the wire and cause it to fail, but this wouldn't happen with AC, and that was one reason for using AC. That may be a load of rubbish - what do you think? If power is shared between countries via a DC link then I assume it is a load of rubbish!
Also, it might be worth commenting that it's the magnitude of the current that causes loss in the cable, so if you can transmit the power at a much higher voltage, and thus at a much lower current, you significantly reduce the loss in the cable. I think that is the main benefit to transmitting at 10's of kilovolts - again, I'd love your thoughts on this. Cheers :)
It is a thing even in AC, if you see very old installations like 30+ yo, its only the phases that are corroded. That green stuff that comes from copper.
I don't understand why the three colours that can end up looking identical once dirty or it's dark were the ones chosen.
So glad I finished my scientific principles exam 2 hours ago… 😂
Good job!👍🏻
I didn't know that _we_ were responsible for the colour harmonisation. I'll add that to my argument book when someone moans about Europe. That said, my autistic brain likes colour and the older colours are growing on me for the sole reason of them looking nicer.
For transmission we use AC because of heating over long runs. DC makes more heat because the the power never lowers or is at 0V onces every 30th of a second (America)
And because of how cheap solid state transformers are, which only work on AC. higher voltage means more room for volt drop
DNOs call the new colours by the old colours. Brown is red, white/yellow is black and so on. These habits have been passed down from the old boys down to the new lads and lasses
Germany have a long time 3 phase.
The EU was very much led by the UK in many fields of harmonisation, medicines, healthcare equipment as well as electrical standards and we were sorely and sadly missed post Brexit.
The CE marks that we used from the EU were a nightmare, because the 4 digit code could crossover. the biggest problem was in medical products. The CE code was also the accrediting organisation, not the product.
We accepted CE-0086 for safety protective products, so we had to be careful.
The most amusing one was condoms, where imported products were using the same CE as balloons, where a one in ten failure rate was acceptable.
Endless jokes ensued about CE-0086. If you were a builder, you had the same code (safety) on your condom, your boots and your hard hat. Most people knew which one was which, but one site sent out a memo that condoms where not acceptable to wear as hard hats.
Keep me with you am electricain
I know you saw me bro 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤😂😂😂❤
Plz add the Hindi language please
Are the brits finally getting 3 phase supply on regular homes? 😂
Whoever thought that changing Red Yellow Blue to Brown Black Grey was a good idea ? Or was it to fall in line with stupid EU regulations ?
I was told that at least part was the new colours are less likely to be mis-identified by people with certain kinds of colour blindness.
@@JimWhitaker Didn't think of that. But I don't think I've ever met a colour-blind Electrician either, at least that I'm aware of. Wouldn't being colour-blind make the job very difficult?
Mix reg codes is verry common in my sector of maintenance engineering . Even we still have to learn and go back to 60s to figure some buildings out . Be good if you could mention why tri rated is used in 3phz pannles for those of you dont know wh