3-wire, and 4-wire circuits are your friends. You be nice to them, and they be nice to you... You give them a nice balanced load with some tight connections, and they give you a little extra money in your pocket for not running extra cables, conduit, and 1-2 extra conductors. In fact, it needs to be specified for me to do anything else.
Granted harmonic issues are on the rise due to the type of loads that generate them are on the increase. But I don't see that as a reason to stop using them. Lost neutrals can be problematic, but only if you dont follow a few simple rules in usage of them.
- Tight connections that are not totally dependant on the cheapest wire nut known.
(WW-3 - Twisting does help here!) - Balanced, or even relitively balanced loading.
- Circuit design, branching away from 3-wire, and 4-wire circuits once you have reached an area, to keep the number of connections on the shared neutral portion down. Instead on daisey chaining through every point. Get rid of one circuit right off by taking a HR to a dedicated load, find a load to match for the next, and so on.
Oh, I heard a wierd copper statisic today. We have now surpassed what is left in the ground, (expected yield) compared to what is already in use. But that could just be a ruse to keep the price up...
[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 01-18-2006).]
