Electrical Noise Question?

Question

When & why will I double my nuetral

Answer 1

ucsted has no clue.....all residences in the usa are called single phase 120v ac...NOT 220v...u do have 220v but it is not called a 220 v system. AC power does not work on a high low basis as he stated, there is always 120v on each leg in ur panel, it doesnt change at all ever, he must be refering to the sinusoidal wave pattern.
anyway i answered ur q the second time u asked it.

Answer 2

You did not give enough info.

You might want to double your nuetral when you are running 220 volts in the USA.

Say you have #12 wire and as you know can carry a max 20 amps. With 220 volts you have two POS wires one nuetral and one ground wire. You can put 20 amps on each POS wire which would make the nuetral have to carry 40 amps to cover the amps on both POS wires. This might be a good place to run the second nuetral wire. But you should get a larger gauge wire and get it over with. I don't know of much of anything in a home that would require you to run larger that #10 wire other than your service enterance. Do some searches on the internet and be sure of your self or you could over heat a wire and burn your house down. Make sure your breakers are of the correct size as well. Normally the nuetral don't have a breaker so it would be wise to keep in mind that you can over load it in this type of a setup.

Good thinking to ask this question. I give you an A+ for good question.

Answer 3

The question is odd if your system was done by a pro. A typical home has 220vac single phase service. That is 2 legs of 110vac. Each leg runs at 60 cycles per second (60Hz) This is ac which is alternating up and down (pulsing) @ 60Hz. When leg #1 is at hi pulse, then leg #2 is at lo. They are at exact opposite at the same time. This is why one neutral wire can will work with a double pole breaker. The legs are divided by even and odd numbered breakers in a single phase panel. Leg #1 is 1,3,5,7,9..... Leg #2 is 2,4,6,8,10,........
For example,Lets use romex 3 wire and a double pole breaker that has one bar to turn off/on. Its position is installed and uses spaces 3 and 4. There is a wire from 3 and a wire from 4 going to your 220 outlet. The other wire is a white neutral that comes from the neutral bar in the panel and goes to the larger blade of the 220 outlet. The neutral will handle the return of both legs. Don't forget your safety grounds are also important, wild electricity needs someplace to go. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_phase