re: #69 Teukka

It’s even more fun in here in Europe. The common feed here is 230/400 V 3-phase nominal (50 Hz mains frequency). One night babysitting for a friend, a spotlight decided give up the ghost in the dead short scenario. Breaker tripped, but that’s when the fun started.
I reset the breaker, but things don’t come on. Then I begin trying to locate the error by turning things on random circuits on. I switch the stove on for example, and the circuit that was previously dead came alive, albeit a little dim. It took a while for me to realize that what was going on was that the short had killed the phase fuse by the meter, and that the heating element in the stove acted like a voltage divider on the dead phase.
Nothing worse than a call to the super couldn’t fix.

Ha. Nice diagnosis. Perhaps you’ve run into the same issue I have, when you explain the problem in careful detail and the solution only to be ignored until a “pro” is available? For example, I have a half-size refrigerator in my man cave that stopped working. Diagnosed it to a faulty control board, but since it was under warranty I requested a service call. Insisted repeatedly that they send a replacement board with the tech. Followed up with a second call requesting the same. Tech shows up, determines it needs a new control board. But did they send one with him as requested? Of course not. Sigh.

Even worse is the number of problems I’ve discovered in work done by “pros”. But I won’t go there, for fear of getting cranky(er).

Oh and in the U.S. you only see high voltage 3 phase in industrial settings. Seems a tad dangerous for home wiring. ;-(