Hvac School - For Techs, By Techs

In this short podcast, Bryan busts the common electrical myth that single-phase 240v power is really two-phase power. When power goes into a structure that runs 240v appliances, we may understand that two 120v sine waves are 180 degrees out of phase with each other, but that isn’t 100% accurate. If we were to use an oscilloscope to watch the electrical sine waves, we would see two sine waves 180 degrees out of phase because the transformers are center-tapped. Center-tapping creates a neutral center point that becomes our reference. The transformer has two sides: a primary and a secondary. The number of wraps on each side is proportional to the other, and the number of wraps also dictates whether a transformer steps the voltage up or down. However, when you use the center tap as a reference, that also makes the voltage appear to be halved.  In many residential structures, a single phase of power goes into the transformer from the power company. If you were to use the center tap as your reference on each side o