Kal Clone Porn

[user 51917]

FYI the power supplied to any building is a product of the transformer connections at the pole, if your building is in a three phase, overhead area,
meaning that there are three wires at the top of the pole, a decision was made when the building was built which configuration was desired
120/240 120/208 277/480 straight 240 etc.

the breaker panels in your building should be clearly marked as to the voltage
it would not be cost effective to change at this point

 

[cdubbaya]

220V is odd. It's not usually available in the US. Are you running this in some sort of commercial environment where 208V 3-phase was available and they wired up one phase?

Well we determined this is the case. The breaker says 208V, which we didn't notice until now. Just did another batch this past weekend, and everything went well, but we only reached about 213V again. Took quite a bit longer to heat than we'd like.

I suppose the only thing to do now is talk to the power company, right?

 

[kal]

Yes. Talk to your power company or an electrician.

Kal

 

[grandequeso]

120/208 is generally more desirerable. when you have 120/240v 3 phase you cannot use the B phase for 120 volt loads. So unless you have lots of 3 phase equipt you end up with lots of wasted panel space. I only ever see 120/240v 3 phase in older buildings.
the simplest/ cheapest/easiest thing would be to just get larger wattage elements. google search "6000 watt water heater element". camco makes a lwd element at 6000watts (its 6000w at 240v) so at 208v the wattage will be closer to what other folks are getting at 240v. with their 4500 or 5500 watt elements

 

[cdubbaya]

120/208 is generally more desirerable. when you have 120/240v 3 phase you cannot use the B phase for 120 volt loads. So unless you have lots of 3 phase equipt you end up with lots of wasted panel space. I only ever see 120/240v 3 phase in older buildings.
the simplest/ cheapest/easiest thing would be to just get larger wattage elements. google search "6000 watt water heater element". camco makes a lwd element at 6000watts (its 6000w at 240v) so at 208v the wattage will be closer to what other folks are getting at 240v. with their 4500 or 5500 watt elements

Interesting, thanks for the tip! I see the Camco element you are talking about, that's a good idea. That should get an extra 10% kick in the wattage we are looking for.

I assume the element hardware and wiring can be reused from our existing elements?

Cheers!