Home electrical help needed please.

[variance]

This is a probably a dumb question, but...

If I have a Washer/Dryer Combo that states its power requirements are "240 Volts" and my home has a "110 Volt outlet" and a "208 Volt Outlet"

Does this mean that I would be unable to use this washer and dryer? If this is the case, then what can be done if anything to make these appliances work?

Thanks

[redblack]

208v is 3-phase voltage
houses should be 120/240v

[variance]

This is actually for a Condo apartment, if that makes a difference.

I have not moved in yet, but the documentation reads "All Laundry Areas - one 110 volt outlet and one 208 volt outlet for the dryer"

What does this mean for my washer and dryer?

[stevo 27]

well i garentee there wont be 3 phase in your condo dont worry about it

all household power is 2 phase


your dryer and dishwasher are good to go

[Zero102]

Lots of the new point of view condo's and such have a 3-phase 120/208V supply and run 2 phases of it to each unit. Pretty common unfortunately. That said, your 240V dryer will run just fine on a 208V outlet.

[86_lude_86]

there is no such thing as 2 phase its single and 3... with that said ya you should be fine. the washer runs on 120v the only issue would be the dryer but there shouldnt be one at all. must be a typo on the ad.

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by 86_lude_86
there is no such thing as 2 phase its single and 3... with that said ya you should be fine. the washer runs on 120v the only issue would be the dryer but there shouldnt be one at all. must be a typo on the ad.

you fail, he meant 2 phases

2 phase is run all over the place, especially in the interior of bc, and then we would hang delta banks with hotlegs to simulate three phase. It would save us a TON of coin on wire and we would always come in on budget because the linemen always overspend, so we need to compensate somewhere.

Also they will run 3Ph into condo building for load sharing and a more stable trunk or feeder (depending on where the load is) and then as Zero102 said they would pull two phases off the main bus bar and run them to individual panels on the floors or something like that.

Imagine having 300 units running of A/B/C Phase, they conductor size would have to be 1000 KCMIL (I am not sure on the conductor size because it would depend on load diversification, OH/UG, etc.) but it would be retarded to do 1 phase into a building like that, it would need to a primary feed customer at 14.4KV at least.

[JordanEG6]

^^ yep

Like stated, new condo buildings, especially high raises will have a 3-ph. supply and the 2 phases to the outlets will remain 120/208 so your washer/dryer combo should work fine.

BTW, isn't '2-phase' just considered line to line?

[variance]

thanks for the info everyone. very helpful!

[Zero102]

The dryer will work just fine, IIRC for it to be certified here it has to operate on 208V, 220 and 240V, because the available voltages differ, what the manufacturer chooses to write on the appliance is their own choice, but most times they will write 200-240V or 208-240V. It will draw a tiny bit more current (at the most a fraction of an amp) to keep the heating elements hot since they run at line voltage, and the electronics will have no idea since they are behind voltage regulators anyways, and usually are on one of the 120V circuits so there is no difference to them in the first place.

Originally posted by JordanEG6

BTW, isn't '2-phase' just considered line to line?

Sort of, line-to-line is a term when you are measuring voltage from 2 ungrounded conductors (i.e. line voltage conductors), typically from different phases (since from the same phase it would always be very close to 0). So technically without 2 phases you could never measure line to line, but it's not the same
Houses are technically supplied with 2 phases, however since they are on a 2-phase system and have 'all' of the phases it is often incorrectly called single phase. One could more correctly call it edison three-wire if they want to sound nerdy, but that will always incite further questions.


Speaking of conductor sizes, I worked on the POV in country hills, newport or something like that (3 or 4 years ago, can't remember the exact name), they had 3 parallel runs of 2000kcmil for their feed since the whole building was 120/208, including massive fan/heater units, elevators, everything. They just split it out into a subpanel on each floor, then took 2 phases of it (and a neutral and ground of course!) to each unit's panel, typically #6 aluminum to save cost.

Same with POV southport, southpoint?.. something, right beside the walmart/mcdonals in mckenzie town. Except they only had 3 paralell runs of 1200kcmil, less units, but they ran 3x#6 aluminum loomex to all of the units, some of the runs are over 200 feet due to how we had to run them. Not something I felt very safe about, but trust me, if you live in building #1 or #2, you have far bigger worries than the electrical. (sorry for the OT)