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In fact you are allowed to have wall switches in the bathroom in the US, however there are strict guidelines on where they must be positioned. I'd get an electrician for this to make sure you're not violating your local electrical codes. I'm not about to get into specifics because I'm not an...

Wow! That's a LOT of juice! What was the phase to phase voltage? Anyway I'm an electrical engineer in a factory, and I deal with three phase all the time. Usually for short runs, such as a circuit breaker to a motor starter that are both in the same electrical panel, we'll just run plain...

Hey, I've made a name for myself! Anyway let's get these colors sorted out first, because what you described is not up to code. I'll be starting with the assumption that you know the difference between hot, neutral, and ground. In the US, ground wires should have green (or striped green and...

Well "live" and "hot" are pretty universal terms, we use them in the US. But "ceiling rose" is a tricky one. I've seen diagrams and it seems that they're a little easier to wire than the typical American light fixture, what with those handy little spare terminals built right in. Anyway for...

And if that is the case, he'll just need a delta-to-star transformer and he will have one.

Well, right, but if you take each phase seperately you have three single-phase supplies. You just need a neutral.

Noted, that's why I used a 415/240V rather than a 208/120V system in my example. The only way to balance the load perfectly would be to hook up only three-phase devices, such as three phase motors and three phase electric heaters. In these cases the phases can't help but balance (assuming the...

Breezer: Assuming he has a 415/240 volt three-phase "why" or "star" connected system it should have a nuetral. I can't imagine he's got an ungrounded delta connection. Just take care to balance your loads on the three phases or you'll get nuetral currents. In the unlikely event that he does...

Just to poke my nose in, if you're going to be running several computers off a three phase system, watch out for third harmonics on your nuetral! I wrote an essay on third harmonics not long ago. here

It sounds like you have a three-way switch installed. Do you have two switches that control the light in question? If so, you bought the wrong switch to use as a replacement. You need to go back and get a three-way switch. If there is only one switch that controls the light, I'd be...

I'm going to guess that one of the following happened: 1. You still have a short in your outlet so you can't reset the breaker. Locate and fix the short and you can reset the breaker. 2. Your breaker's spring has worn out and you need to replace it. You can test #1 fairly easily with...

Whew, time to dust off the old textbook and double check the finer points. Assuming a balanced system: The current in one leg of your star is equal to the current in two legs of your delta. I(an) = I(ab) + I(ac) The line to neutral voltage of your star is equal to the line to line...

Well would you look at that... here I was under the mistaken impression that the two ends of a ring mains connected to two different breakers! I understand now the two ends connect into just one breaker. That makes more sense. It also explained why this lets you use 2.5mm wire on a 32A...

Our circuit breaker panels are often in the basement tucked away in the utility room where nobody has to see it. You don't want to be going down there every time you trip the outlet in the upstairs bathroom. :) A standard 15A wall outlet is less than $1, while a GFCI protected outlet is...

Maybe that's why you're not allowed to use them in UK bathrooms! :P In all seriousness, I don't know for sure why motors trip GFCIs. My only theory is that, as you say, the phase shift in the current due to highly inductive loads (transformers can trip them too) fools the GFCI into...

I believe what you're talking about is perfectly fine, parrro2. However, be aware that there are two ways to hook up the GFCI, one will kill the lights when it trips, the other will not. Ban All Sheds, we usually only use GFCI protection in the US where it's required. GFCIs have a bad habit...

First of all, you should know that GFCI protected outlets don't like motors. Your vacuum cleaner has a big motor in it, and motors tend to trip GFCIs. Use a regular outlet for your vacuum cleaner. Secondly, GFCI protected outlets also trip if any outlets downstream from them have a problem...

In the US, we're allowed to have GFCI protected regular outlets in our bathrooms. I understand this is not the case in the UK. Anyway back to the original question: First of all wihello, if you are not experienced with electrical work you probably shouldn't be starting with bathroom wiring...

If I understand your question correctly, you are planning on hooking up the motion detector in parallel with your three-way switch, so that either the switch or the motion detector can turn on the light? If so, this is a violation of American electrical codes, and it's probably a violation of...

This makes me wonder, how many other countries use Ring Mains wiring? The US does not, and in fact if I understand ring mains correctly, it's actually a violation of our codes!