Most popular voltage for distilling in USA?

[bolek]

Hello, I need to your opinion. Which connection type is most popular in USA?. I read that "standard home" and so "user" have only two phase (180 degree shift) who can give 240V or 110V betwen phase and ground. Three phase 480V/120deg can find only in some company or factory. it Is true?

[Expat]

220/110v or 240/120v depending on where you are I believe.

I would guess 220v is most popular given the number of people running 5500w elements.

[HDNB]

you are correct. 3 phase power is only found in commercial applications in north america.

[Single Malt Yinzer]

Single Phase 110/220 is common and easy to setup or have installed in a house. 220v requires a breaker and different wire to be run to the outlet. Lots of them are setup to run air compressors in garages. 110 maxes out around 5hp, 220 you can do more.

If you still is 5 gallons or less you can get away with 110 15-20 amp. For larger or faster you should get a 220 30-50 amp outlet. And don't cheap out on the wiring because you can burn your house down if you drawn too heavy a load on your wiring.

Triple Phase 220/480v is industrial/commercial. You generally can't do that without getting a second feed from the poles and the poles have to be setup for it. Most residential areas are not.

[zed255]

Popular? Both residential 'single phase' 120V (110V in some regions) and 240V (220V in some regions), depending on where you are on your stilling journey and what hardware you use.

Small rigs could run merrily on a 1500W 120V element or portable hotplate on a controller off a standard household circuit. Bigger rigs would be best served by 3000+W and 240V also on a controller using a dedicated circuit. I have a dedicated 240V 30A circuit in my garage and have adapter cords to use a standard (in my region) drier outlets (240V 30A) and stove outlets (140V 40A).

Those who run in the kitchen could utilize a kitchen split outlet to access 240V and draw (reliably 12A or so on a 15A circuit / 17A or so on a 20A circuit) without running a dedicated circuit. This could allow about 3000W on a 15A dual breaker and would almost accommodate 4500W on a 20A dual breaker (technically would draw less than 20A but might suffer from nuisance tripping as 4500W would be very close the the breaker rating at 240V).

[bluefish_dist]

Three phase is only in commercial spaces and then it's 208 which derates the 5500w elements to about 4000w. For homes it's 240 or 120. 120 is limited to about 10-12 amps load, which is only 1200-1400w. Driers are 35 amp or so which can get you a 5500w element at full output. I did just add a 50 amp circuit to my garage for car charging.

[bolek]

Thanks for answer. So, some home have only 110V, and some else have connected second phase and get 240V?.
Hmm, in my opinion this voltage (110V) is totally useless for distilling- maybe several kW is enough but preheating will be long, 240V also is not perfect but there is no better option. Thanks God that in Poland (basically) any house have 3x400V/~20A. For 10kW machine 3x2,5mm2 wire is enough.
Norway have similar power grid, but here the home circuit is under supervision of the special office and they give big punishment for unauthorized changes

@Bluefish, You gave me an idea- Tesla have ~80kWh baterry, you can drive to the meadow and turn on machine. I wonder what Elon will say about this idea

[zed255]

In North America residential services are fed with two opposing phases of 120V. Both 120V and 240v are available in homes depending on how the circuit is wired.