Re: 3 Phase - again

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Mike Harrison by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <mike-at-whitewing.co.uk>

On Sat, 03 Feb 2001 10:03:37 -0700, you wrote:

>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>
>
>Hi all,
>
>I hate to open this thread, but I have a question from a little different
>angle than anyone else came from :-) I've noticed driving thru some 
>of the older, but well-kept neighborhoods of my city several fairly 
>large homes that were obviously strictly residential, but yet they had
>3-phase service, and usually they had two seperate electriclal hook-
>ups from the utility. One was single phase and the other was 3-phase.
>I've been noticing this, especially after the discussion on this list about
>3-ph and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this? I know that
>Jim Lux said that you must have a >10 HP electric motor, or something 
>to that affect with PG&E, and I'm sure all local utility companies have 
>similar requirements for 3-phase service eligibility. My question is how did 
>these residential homes aquire 3-phase service? I didin't notice any large 
>shop building near the properties and like I said, the 3-phase hook-up was 
>directly to the home. Comments anyone?

Big airconditioning or electric heating systems (maybe pool heaters)
would seem to be the most obvious domestic 3-phase applications. 
I would imagine that a centralised aircon for a reasonably-sized house
would suck enough KW to benefit from 3-phase.