The common trick is to turn on the stove as it will use both phases of the electrical system.

I am wondering about something myself. If you go to the X10 troubleshooting webpage, it says that using a 0.1 microfarad, 240V ac or 600V dC capacitor across your 220 volt line (hot to hot) will do the trick. If this is the case, why are people talking about spending big bucks for an amplifier?