How does 3 phase power work?
In: Physics
Any time there is a difference in voltage potential, power can flow. This is how static shocks work.
Now your house just has 120V (technically 240, but it’s center-tapped to divide it in half unless it’s a big appliance), with the ground being 0 Volts which allows electricity to flow. But you just get a single sine wave of electricity from this, which means there are instantaneous points during which power going through the system is 0.
3-phase involves having 3 different power wires all connected to the same thing. As they’re out of phase with each other, power can flow between them as while say one is at 480, another phase is at say 240 (as an imaginary example) But since you have 3 phases, there will never be a point where the net power is 0 volts to the circuit. It dips down and goes up but is never zero, nor “negative.” This can be quite helpful with things like electric motors — they can put out more work, and to make them run backwards you just flip any 2 phase connections.
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