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Three phase balance saved my bacon last Tuesday

Was troubleshooting a flickering lights call at a strip mall near Spokane. Panel was pulling 180 amps on A phase but only 90 on C. Rebalanced the loads across all three phases. Voltage drop fixed and the store manager stopped screaming about fried ballasts. Anyone else check phase balance before swapping out dimmers?
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2 Comments
the_shane
the_shane23h ago
Last Tuesday? Man, I had a similar thing at this old theater in Tacoma. They had this ancient dimmer rack that kept tripping the main. Turned out some clown had wired half the house lights to one phase and all the work lights to another. Rebalanced it and the whole place stopped acting like a strobe light.
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lindareed
lindareed2d ago
Classic. Amateurs always blame the dimmers.
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