Re: Should I use the 110v or 120v selection for my laserdisc
- From: invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Beachcomber)
- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 06:43:11 GMT
On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 14:35:35 -0700, terry <tsanford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Jul 14, 2:22 pm, "peter" <nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
110V = Japan
120V = USA / Canada
220V = Thailand and other Asian (+ some European?)
240V = UK and other European and Asian locations
So why did the US deviates from UK? To show we really are independent?
Probably blame Thomas Edison? The USA had to use 60 to catch up!
Joking aside I was once in lodgings in an older part of the UK where
the supply was 230 volts DC! The landlady persisted in saying "Oh yes
it's ACDC electricity".
Also all the the voltages are 'nominal'!
Here in this part of North America, for example, at this time of year
when electric heating loads are off, one side of our nominal 120 is
typically 122 and the other 119 but it varies. I've seen it as high as
127 and as low as 114; but all within the percentage variations
allowed.
The AC frequency also varies from country to country. Sixty hertz
(Cycles per second) in North America etc, and fifty hertz in UK and
many other countries. Some aircraft use similar voltages (115 volts
AC) but at 400 hertz!
BTW. I thought Japan was nominally 100 volts AC? However 110 would
even then be only 10% high.
120 V DC was available in certain parts downtown New York as late as
the 1930's (maybe beyond). RCA used to sell special radios that
would run on DC house current.
Japan actually uses 100 VAC with 1/2 of the country on 60 Hz and 1/2
of the country of 50 Hz. I'm not sure how they picked a voltage that
is close to but different than what every other country in the world
uses.
I've used some 'made-in-japan' industrial timers rated for 100V AC in
the US and they worked OK even though they had weird, non-NEMA power
terminals.
Some homes in the USA even go higher than 120 V. I routinely measure
123 V at my outlets and my meter is pretty accurate.
No harm is done by the higher voltage, accept your stuff (motors, tv
sets, computer power supply) runs a little bit hotter. Some would say
this is wasteful. Unless they are in brownout conditions, power
companies seem to like providing the higher voltages (closer to 125
V), there is less voltage drop, and watt-hour for watt-hour, they sell
more of them.
Beachcomber
.
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