Community three-phase

[ekmdgrf]

One of the myriad crazy thoughts that goes through my mind:

I understand that convention has it that usually each third house on a street is wired to the same phase, so at least in theory, ones next-door neighbours are on different phases. So, naturally, the next thought that went through my mind was: could one take a feed from each neighbour and create a three-phase install? How would one go about doing it*?

* No, I'm not actually considering doing it

 

[bernardgreen]

Don't worry folks. It is just a phase that ekmdgrf is going through.

 

[Robin0577]

IN THEORY, given careful testing to ensure that you do actually have all 3 phases present and in the correct sequence, I don't see why it wouldn't work from a purely electrical point of view.

As for actually doing it, I can't think of any way that would actually be safe & sensible, having multiple points of main isolation and metering would make it a practical no-no I reckon. Might be some interesting issues with earthing on some types of supply as well.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I would just take the phase from next door and see if your electricity bill gets cheaper.

 

[ekmdgrf]

I would just take the phase from next door and see if your electricity bill gets cheaper.

Many years ago, I did wonder about putting a turbine on the tap and using that to generate electricity, under the logic that electricity is on a meter and water is on a rate. Funnily enough, the same question popped up on XKCD's What-if? a couple of weeks ago.

 

[GaryGarden]

Many years ago, I did wonder about putting a turbine on the tap and using that to generate electricity, under the logic that electricity is on a meter and water is on a rate.

Brilliant idea for those of us still on rates, design a small system and sell the components to build it and you will make yourself a small fortune.

 

[bernardgreen]

Some church organs were blown by water powered bellows instead of hand powered bellows. Leakage of water was allowed to keep the atmosphere moist to prevent the wooden organ pipes, wind boxes and air valves from drying out and cracking

 

[Lectrician]

It's a big generalisation.

It is actually fairly rare to find each third house on the same phase.

You quite often find that a pair of houses share a phase, and even share a service cable.

Some streets could only have a single phase, two phase, or split phase.

Some towns run two phases down each street, and alternate the two phases that are in each street. This goes back to the old DC days, utilising old cables.