That last story reminds me.....
During my college years I worked at an electronics shop. One day the members of a band comes in complaining about the local bar. Turns out they smoked all their equipment because "the voltage in the place was messed up at 211 volts." I spent an hour trying to find several suitable replacement cube transformers which had smoked. I never thought about it....
Later that year while also employed by a sound and lighting company we arrived at this same bar to set up for a band competition. Upon entering the basement to connect our temp subpanel we notice every other breaker missing and confirmed a high leg voltage of 208 with a VOM.
It was shortly after that I realized the band failed to recognize this oddball service. They also made a major error by not checking the voltage with a meter.
This was back in my hometown and the bar has been there forever. My only guess is the service was left behind from some industrial stuff in the area and they got what the PoCo already had in place.
In retrospect it was strange to see this service...with every other breaker left open.....just waiting for some poor sole.
RSlater,
RSmike
