Single Phase VS Three Phase Power

When we talk about phases it is referring to the distribution of load. 

Single phase involves one wire feeding your house with power while three phase feeds it with three. 

As you can see from the basic diagram, in a general single phase scenario there is one active wire fed into the home with and one neutral. Three phase supply has three active wires feeding the home and one neutral. 

The reason behind this as we mentioned earlier is all about the distribution of load.

Historically, most homes were built with a single phase connection. 

If we think back not that long ago, we ran our lights, a fridge, a TV and that was pretty much it. These days, nearly everything we touch is plugged into the wall. Most homes you can just speak and something will turn on and that’s before we even consider the uptake in electric vehicles. 

So, in comes three phase power. Many new buildings are now being built with three phase power and recently we have seen a lot of homes spending the money to upgrade to support their growing demand.  

Three phase simply supports more demand from your home because it can balance your load across three phases or wires and not just one. It is that simple. 

If you speak to an electrical engineer you will end up with a much more complex explanation and some of the analogies we have come across are more complex than the problem and that is why we decided not to waffle on about 120 degree intervals and sine wave voltages.