Theoretically, if you have a three-phase system, you can earth one of the lives.
You could, but going by the colloquially accepted definition of
live then the earthed phase would no longer be live.
We're getting quite a few international members now, so let's recap for their benefit: The British use of
live corresponds to the similar colloquial term
hot in North America, and
active in Australia/New Zealand. The official British IEE definition of a live conductor is somewhat different and means any conductor which carries current during normal operation (i.e. it includes the neutral).
I'm not aware of anyone using such a system, but there are a couple of odd systems around, especially in North America.
There's the corner-grounded delta arrangement, with one phase grounded.
The other "odd" American system (from a European perspective) is the 4-wire delta where the ground is at the mid-point of one side of the delta. Always 240V between any two phases, but two phases measure 120V to ground and the third is 208V to ground. I'm not aware of any such system ever being used on this side of the Atlantic.
Nah, the Brits are nuts alright
Definitely! We vary from mildy eccentric to completely crazy!
![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/biggrin.gif)
Seriously though, although many people people here do tend to look at Continental Europe and laugh at the "funny foreigners" and the way they do things, there are many cases where in fact it is we in Britain who are the odd ones out.
