Hi /sci/
I cannot for the life of me understand how the voltage in this electrical system works.
The voltage used is in the european system. For the U.S it will be 220V for L1-L2 and 110V L1-N.
What I cannot comprehend is the voltage drop when L1 or L2 is connected to the Neutral wire, cause I've been told that the current won't actually be flowing though the neutral, but it will go from L1 to Neutral then return via L2, but how come the voltage drops to 230 then?
What makes the path different if you just skip the little piece of interconnecting neutral wire and connect L1 & L2 to each other directly?
>>7814893
is there a phase shit between the two lines?
>>7814910
>shit
oops, I meant shift
>>7814893
but the curent from both lines DOES return through the neutral, that's why it's there in the first place.
>>7814932
I've heard that "in a system with balanced loads, no current flows through the neutral wire"
>>7814938
that's because the phase difference among the lines cancels out the currents flowing through it.
I don't know about the european system, but if it's three-phase, then if you only connect two lines there's no way you have balanced loads.
>>7814947
If it's an incredible hassle, don't bother. But could you attempt to explain this more simply?
>>7814938
You should read about wave reflection. These animations help:
http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/reflect/reflect.html
Basically, if the load impedance is properly matched with the power source, there should be (virtually) no reflection from the load. However, because no electrical device is built perfectly to specifications, there will always be a very small reflection which will result in a standing wave (bad). The neutral wire eliminates the standing wave.
Now the exception is when you do not have a complex load (no imaginary numbers). When your load is purely real, you will not have any wave reflection. This is why some electronics can skip the neutral wire entirely.
>>7814972
that's a different issue altogether. You are talking about load matching, load balancing is having the same load in all three lines.
>>7814980
From my understanding they're basically one and the same, however referenced in different contexts. If your load isn't balanced across the three lines, then it is not going to be matching the power source.
