[ale] Not so evil empire

[David Ritchie]

> Am I correct in believing that a 220AC outlet, such as the one I have in my house
> for the hot tub, requires at least 2 phases?

No, it is single phase fed, with a center tapped transformer secondary
that is (or should be) grounded near
your service entrance. The two sides of the 220 line are 180 degrees
out of phase to each other.
110 VAC feeds are between one side of the transformer and the neutral.
Having a bad ground on the neutral is A Bad Thing, and can cause
voltage to rise or drop relative to the (now floating) neutral, which
can resulting the voltage going way high in one side of the house, or
do other funny things like only work when your dryer is running or
such... This tends to result in failed equipment due to overvoltage..

  If it was 3 phase, the voltages would be 120 degrees out of phase
with each other, not 180 degrees.

  think of it this way - high voltage side goes though primary to
ground. output side is center tapped,
which results in a 3 wire cable (hot / neutral (a.k.a. ground) and
inverted voltage hot), and the neutral is
also ground on the output side and on the ground rod at the house. If
you look at high voltage lines,
you will see 3 insulated lines (for the A/B/C phases) plus a ground
wire ... that is how the return paths work.....

-- Dave