I am a little confused on a situation that I ran across the other day. The garage where I work has a "240 volt three phase" service. It measures L-G 120,208,120 and L-L 240. Is this considered a 208Y120?.

The issue is that I have a 115/230 vac single phase chop saw that is "custom" wired. It has a 2 conductor cord on it, plugged into this 3 phase 4 wire service. They have one conductor to the ground pin and the other to the 208 pin. I don't have a wiring diagram for this motor so I'm not sure exactly how this is. If I remember correctly, it has 4 wires in the motor. The green wire in the motor is connected to the ground pin on the cord. One wire is connected to the 208 pin. And two others are tied together.

Can anyone help me with this confusion? How is this working? I know its not right and I want to fix it correctly.

Thanks, Merlin

The service you describe is a 3 phase, 240Vdelta "high leg". So named because the "B" phase is 208V to ground or neutral. I am unsure about the motor wiring, but if it is 115/230 single phase it can be operated connected to any two phases.

Another issue when dealing with this type service is the use of full voltage breakers.

You can not use the standard 240/120 breakers when the high leg is used to power single phase 240v loads, or the 3phase loads.

Dnk..

Check out the diagram for the
CENTER-TAP GROUNDED DELTA
http://www.bmillerengineering.com/elecsys.htm

Merlin:

the motor connection is sometime very tricky there and depend on which voltage you got it on it can be either 120 or 240 volts you have to check the motor name plate for correct connections

a quick warning do not hook 120 volt motor[s] on 208 circuit on delta system it will blow it up.

retest the plug for the motor where it will be plug in and make sure you stay off the wild leg unless the motor is for 3 phase then it will be ok


Merci , Marc

In a high leg delta system, the B phase bus bar in a panel is supposed to be identified somehow, like orange or red in color, to indicate that something is different, and not to install a 1-Pole circuit breaker on phase B.

I'll try posting a graphic from the link Robbie gives.



Radar

Edited for spelling (duh)

[This message has been edited by Radar (edited 02-02-2006).]

Thanks for the great responses. This is what I love about this site, the timely and knowledgeable responses.

Can anyone explain how this is currently working from the "wild" and ground legs only?

Thanks again, Merlin

In the sketch above, you see the lower winding, the A to C one, which is center tapped with the center point grounded. The A to C winding is 240V overall, so from the center point to either A or C is 120V, exactly half.

However, you also see there is no direct connection from the center point up to B, and the voltage from the center point up to B will be around 208V, an unfortunate coincidence. And, as luck would have it, 208 is probably close enough to operate the 230V chop saw.

The right way to do this is to run 230V from any 2 points A-B, B-C, or C-A, or to convert the saw to 120V and run it from either 120V leg (A or C) to neutral.

Radar

It sounds like they have the motor tapped for 230-240 (taps with "2 wires connected together" usually means 2 windings in series).
It is seeing 208 and running somewhat OK.

We never liked to see line to neutral loads on an "open vee" service. It tends to make the line to line around the phases shift a bit.

What type of plug and receptacle are in use? Is this actually connected to a grounding (U-shaped) prong on the plug?

It would work that way, since the ground is bonded to the neutral (the mid-point of the A-C winding in the diagram above), but actual GROUNDING pins should not be used for current-carrying conductors.

It does sound as though it might be a motor designed for 120 or 240V operation (by altering the windings to parallel/series) which is being undserrun a little on 208V.

Thanks again for the information. I am getting ready to leave for work, so I will dig a little deeper into this and let you know what I find.

pauluk, this is a twist-lock plug it is using. I think it is 20 amp, but I don't remember.

I beleive the "high" leg should be marked orange. Below is from the NEC Handbook 2002:


215.8 Means of Identifying Conductor with the Higher Voltage to Ground.
On a 4-wire, delta-connected secondary where the midpoint of one phase winding is grounded to supply lighting and similar loads, the phase conductor having the higher voltage to ground shall be identified by an outer finish that is orange in color or by tagging or other effective means. Such identification shall be placed at each point where a connection is made if the grounded conductor is also present.
Where the midpoint of one phase winding is grounded in order to supply 120-volt lighting and similar loads from a delta-connected, 3-phase secondary, one phase conductor will have a higher voltage to ground. An orange finish, orange tape, or other effective means identifies this phase conductor at any point, such as junction or pull boxes or panelboards, where connections may be made and the grounded conductor is also present. The orange high leg of a 3-phase, 4-wire 240/120-volt delta system is 208 volts to ground (120 volts multiplied by 1.73 equals 208 volts) and should obviously not be used for 120-volt circuits. See 110.15, 230.56, and 408.3(E) for details on high-leg marking and phase arrangement. The conductor with the higher voltage to ground is identified in Exhibit 215.2 as having an orange finish. The identification must be visible at every point where a connection is made if the grounded conductor (neutral) is present.

Exhibit 215.2 Identification of the high-leg (orange) conductor of a 3-phase, 4-wire, 240/120-volt delta circuit.