Balanced Power

Karls, what would be the purpose of an isolation transformer? Could you be thinking of a down converter?

A down converter would be required if somebody has set up a 230 volt circuit/line (balanced power) at the service panel with the intension of using that ciruit with 115 volt components.

-IMO

karls -

Good point, the important thing is that you can't rewire a breaker to get balanced power.

-Ed

For those that like to read, I've attached a url from Equi=Tech's website along with one paragraph:

http://www.equitech.com/articles/bpng.html.

Tphalieros, perhaps this is what your original inquiry was about. The defining paragraph states:

"Balanced AC is simply 120 Volts that has been split evenly across two AC mains. One phase is +60V while the other is -60V. The mains are always 180 degrees out of phase across the load and therefore sum to 120 Volts, the same voltage and frequency for which equipment power supplies were designed. In this case however, the reference potential (ground) has been located at the midpoint between the two mains so there is no "neutral" wire."

Hope this helps.

-IMO

Stehno, there are two ways to get there: One, take your house's 240v supply and run it through a stepdown transformer wound 2:1 (240v to 120v). Or two, just pass one of the 120's through an isolation transformer (wound 1:1 with a center tap for ground). The end result is the same. One approach may be quieter than the other depending on the type and magnitude of noise on your AC lines, but it would be hard to say which would be better without trying both.

Karls, yes, that is true. However, in keeping with the original poster's question, I was addressing the house wiring/service panel only.

Also, since I've been wanting to do this only for my amp, thus leaving it at 230 volts and converting the amp to 230v, I had no need myself to research down-converters for 115v. So in my illustrations above, I stayed away from what I did not know.

And in my posting above where I describe how one can obtain balanced power at the service panel, at least one poster here responded by stating what I described could not be done. Unless of course, one were to use that line for an oven or clothes dryer.

At least some of us know that statement is simply untrue.

-IMO