ThermalRunaway
New Member
Hi everyone,
I'm after some advise from an electrician or someone familiar with power electronics on how the home electrics work in the UK.
I'm in the middle of working on a project which, if I ignore the details of the actual project for the moment, suffice to say that it uses the domestic mains supply to communicate with other devices in a similar (but in no way identical) fashion to the way that X10 works. I should add that my project is in no way compatible with X10 nor do I want it to be.
The problem I have is that communications made in this manner MUST be limited to within the one home and not effect any next door neighbours. For example, if I have device A talking to device B in number 5 Jones Street, I wouldn't want those communications to effect an identical setup in number 4 Jones Street.
This brings me to my home electrics question. As I understand it, we work on a 3 phase system here in the UK. Any home in the UK can be working off any of the three phases depending on how the homes within the street are wired up. Due to the way that my project works, I don't believe that any neighbouring homes running identical systems would be effected provided they were working off a different phase. But, is this necessarily the case? Is it possible or indeed probable that neighbouring homes would be working off the same phase electrics?
That being the case, is it also possible that if I send a command over the mains supply from device A to device B that an indentical device B working next-door could be influenced by this command? I suppose what I'm really asking is whether there's any electrical connection between the electrics of one home and it's neighbouring homes or is each home electrically isolated from the other?
Advise appreciated
Brian Hoskins
I'm after some advise from an electrician or someone familiar with power electronics on how the home electrics work in the UK.
I'm in the middle of working on a project which, if I ignore the details of the actual project for the moment, suffice to say that it uses the domestic mains supply to communicate with other devices in a similar (but in no way identical) fashion to the way that X10 works. I should add that my project is in no way compatible with X10 nor do I want it to be.
The problem I have is that communications made in this manner MUST be limited to within the one home and not effect any next door neighbours. For example, if I have device A talking to device B in number 5 Jones Street, I wouldn't want those communications to effect an identical setup in number 4 Jones Street.
This brings me to my home electrics question. As I understand it, we work on a 3 phase system here in the UK. Any home in the UK can be working off any of the three phases depending on how the homes within the street are wired up. Due to the way that my project works, I don't believe that any neighbouring homes running identical systems would be effected provided they were working off a different phase. But, is this necessarily the case? Is it possible or indeed probable that neighbouring homes would be working off the same phase electrics?
That being the case, is it also possible that if I send a command over the mains supply from device A to device B that an indentical device B working next-door could be influenced by this command? I suppose what I'm really asking is whether there's any electrical connection between the electrics of one home and it's neighbouring homes or is each home electrically isolated from the other?
Advise appreciated
Brian Hoskins