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Are all electrical sockets of my house in the same phase?

rishi2628

Most countries use AC power that is supplied to each house. This AC power is in the form of a sine wave. My question is that suppose I have 2 electrical power sockets in two rooms that are at the opposite ends of my house. Will both the electrical sockets provide the same sine wave that is in phase or will the electrical power be at a constant phase shift. What will it be like out of the two ghaphs:-

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  • 0

    Hi Rishi,

    I do not know about your location but here in the USA the power is brought into residential homes as 2 phase off a central ground or Neutral. If power is taken from the Neutral to either phase the result is 115 Volts 60 Hz. If a tap is taken between the two phases ( 180 Degrees ) the resultant voltage is 230 Volts 60 Hz. When the house is wired there is an attempt to put equal load on the two 115 Volt phases and all the larger appliances, Stove, Dryer, Water Heater and Air conditioning are placed on the 230 Volt differential between the two phases. As a result of this arrangement it is possible to measure 230 Volts from the hot wire of one 115 Volt wall outlet to the hot wire of a second adjacent outlet, though a good electrician will seek to avoid this situation.

    John

  • 0

    As @John Wiltrout said, here in the US, you can indeed have different phases on different sockets.

     

    Since each circuit is usually powering a different part of the house and all of the plugs are wired to a central ground, that poses no risk to the user.

     

    Since my electric stove and dryer are on 230 V, they have separate circuits and plugs so that there is no danger of accidentally putting a 110V product into a 230V circuit.

     

    DAB

  • 0

    Hi Rishi,

     

    I was thinking about your question and I believe there is another way that there might be a slight phase variance from on end of a house to another. We know that with one phase entering a location there can be only one phase. What happens however if the wiring in the building is under sized or not well connected so that there is a resistance between one end of the building and the other. What if there is an inductive load at one end and a capacitive load at the other. I would imagine that this would produce a phase shift from one end of the home to the other. I am not an engineer though so maybe one of our experts can shoot me down or verify my hypothesis.

     

    John

  • 0

    Hi ,

     

    Technically, yes it is possible to have two different sine wave readings, But in reality if both power sockets are coming from the same supply at rated the same voltage and phase, then they should be the same.