Text 9885, 82 rader
Skriven 2010-08-09 22:44:56 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
Ärende: Just Curious
====================
Hello Ross,

On Sunday August 08 2010 18:32, you wrote to me:

 MV>> Now the voltage in most of Europe is 230 Volts 50 Hz.

 MV>> http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm

 RC> So its a transportation savings, probably for different population
 RC> densities..

The transportation savings apply independent of populations densities. It works
everywhere: higher voltage, lower transportation loss for the same amount of
copper.

 MV>> losses/amount of copper.

 RC> In my case, there is a transformer mounted on the utility pole at the
 RC> end of the driveway, a neighbor across the street has one to, other
 RC> neighbors do not..

So the transformer is shared between several houses.

 RC> I have seen the one that services our house, rather heard, it
 RC> explode.. Presumably to squirrels.

The squirrels made a short? Hmmm...

 MV>> We have three fase 230/400 Volt for heavy duty appliences. In
 MV>> industrial environments sometimes 400/700 Volts is used.

 RC> 220/230V is what is piped into the homes here, with the voltages split
 RC> off at the breaker box.

So in your case the transformer has a 240 Volt secudairy winding with a center
tap. Call the center tap N and the two extremes L1 and L2. There is 120 Volts
between L1 or L2 and N and 240 Volts between L1 and L2. N is problably
connected to ground at the transfromer.

Three wires run to your house. Half the circuits in your house are between L1
and N, and the other half between L2 and N. For heavy equipment you can have a
240 Volt circuit that is connected between L1 and L2,

 RC> Not being an electrical genius, I believe phased is what they describe
 RC> the heavy circuitry for our heavy home appliances.  It is called two
 RC> phased.

 RC> On the stove and dryer, the power connection is way different with 2
 RC> angled blades for the power,

The connector would be different from the ones used for 120 Volt appliences of
course. Lest they not be misxed up.

 RC> As a result, your simple appliances have to be built to handle the
 RC> voltage, you would think they could break it down at your box?

No, we can not break it down at the boss, because there never is 120 Volts
anywhere between two cables. Our distribution system is three fase using four
wires labelled N, L1, L2 and L3, Between Lx and N there is 230 Volts and
between Lx and Ly there is 400 Volts.

So we can not just make a tap to connect 120 Volts appliences. But even if we
could, why should we? We do not have any appliences running on 120 Volts. Over
half a century ago we got rid of the different voltages by raising it all to
230. There is no way we are going down again.

As to your question: "are we behind?", ... well I think you were caught by what
we in Dutch call "remmende voorsprong". You were ahead and designed your system
for what at the time looked like a good idea: 110 - 120 Volts. We came later
and so when it was discovered, that a higher voltage was a better idea, it was
not too late for us to make the change. Before 1950, there were very few
regrigerators and vacuum cleaners around. A typical electrical installation in
a house in The Netherlands consisted of a dozen light fixtures. That was it.
Incandescent lamps are not all that expensive and they have a relatively
limited lifetime anyway. Replacing the bulbs was a doable operation. I remember
when The Hauge convertred from 110 to 220 Volts...


Cheers, Michiel

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