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3 Wire Buss on a 4 Wire System?

Ox

Diamond
Joined
Aug 27, 2002
Location
Northwest Ohio
Is there any hope of being able to use 3 wire buss if the only service available is 4 wire?
I have oodles of old Westinghouse buss line that I am currently using, as well as squirrelled away.
If I was to run new hydro in a building starting mostly from scratch, what would be my odds of being able to use it?

I'm guessing 480, and if I don't want to run 277v lights, would there be any reason to need 4 wire?

If so - has anyone / would it be Kosher to run a center tap line along beside?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
If you do not need the neutral, no reason to run it.

If you would not pull the wire if wiring it without the buss duct, why would you need the extra conductor?

I do not think it would be good to run the neutral externally. Any unbalance would lead to problems of losses due to eddy currents in the enclosure, with one conductor inside and the other outside. That would arguably not meet the NEC requirement for the equipment used to be approved for the use. It would be an "off datasheet" use.

And, if you do not use the neutral, there is no need for it and no reason to figure out a "kludge" for it.

Now, if your 3 buss stuff is rated only for 2 hots and a neutral, then the neutral may not have sufficient voltage rating to ground, and you should not use it for 3 phase. But I have not seen that, the stuff I have seen was ordinary 3 phase buss with 3 conductors.

A local neutral can be re-created by a transformer that is delta-wye, if needed. Especially if 480 delta and 208 wye is what you want.
 








 
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