Energy Why do we have dual voltage in North America?

a very good read on the subject.......i think the USA will stay with 110 and lower voltages because of safety.....
the national electrical code is all safety, SAFETY, SAFETY AT ANY COST

 

Well, I'm still not sure I understand why we continue to do this today. After all, it isn't the voltage that kills ya, it's the amperes. Personally, I have become accustomed to a single voltage for everything. While they don't have a clue as to what a "proper ground" or "proper earth" is, in SEA, it's still balanced, unlike our power stateside. Too many unbalanced loads in your panel and it will unnecessarily cost you more.

Of course, maybe that's not a big issue, considering power costs being much cheaper than in other parts of the world. Here, for example, I am finally paying the cheapest I have ever paid, anywhere in SEA, per kWh, at $.195¢. Some places in country charge as much as $.50¢ / kWh.

 

I always thought we had dual voltage as kind of a leftover from when homes where wired with 3 phase.
Put 2 of the 3 phases together and you get 208v for stove, hot water heater and home heating.

 

Because some of the early electrification of railroads used it to push the trains along and for signalling.

 

Also the UK doesn't use 60Hz it uses 50Hz and 230-240 Volts I grew up there and had my share if conduction of that energy (and lived to tell about it)

 

North America picked split legg 110-125/220-240 60Hz power for MONEY Making.
New motors and lights plugs transformers ,generators all need to be built in NA for NA and copper wire at that power voltage structure needs to be thicker .So more copper is required .
Better to build it here ,than import it from Europe.
1950's era .we were 25 Hz till we updated to 60hz . eastern usa / canada 1940s till 52
Sloth

 

As a kid I was familiar with knob and tube wiring in 60 year old buildings at the time and played with those making repairs and extending it through out our property ,never thought any thing about it .
Sticking a penny in the fuse was not a big deal till you understood what the fuse was protecting. oops

Later in life I began repairing stuff in dads second hand store and eventually in the air compressor shop .
another shop I worked that taught us more precisely how electric motors worked and the boss had us altering 3 phase motors for single phase .

I have worked on equipment that was high voltage they even had their own sub station which had one time blown up.
6 -1500 hp air compressors including 6- 600 hp water pumps draw a lot of energy .
We had to govern our energy so it did not jeopardize the power for the town .
I can appreciate all the variations in voltage ,each has it's place .
The higher the voltage the more efficient it preforms in commercial applications .
residential applications however require more safety being children are at risk. fact. me.

 

I have noticed that at above 660 or so volts and dc at over a couple hundred amps and 100 or so volts, the switch gear and fusing can get a little hairy. Have seen a couple High Voltage panels go in my life and they can get a little more interesting than I am comfortable with. Had a co worker get flash blind from a failed fuse at about 1600 v, came out of it ok, but first master electrician I called for the boss, said No Way in He** am I Going to Touch That. A copper arc isn't as low resistance as a carbon arc, but it will suffice.
This was in a plastic factory, long since closed, that had several molding machines with 100 HP electric motors driving hydraulic pumps and electric heaters melting 12 lb plastic shots at 1 a minute. Made plastic garbage cans, plastic fence posts, kids toys, etc. All gone to China now and the factory 30 miles away that made the molding machines is gone too. Was a time when I could call up at 3 AM for a replacement 100 ton ram or 100 HP pump and motor and all they asked was English or Metric and what is your PO Number and it would be at the loading dock in 3 hours and day shift would be running the machine. Some of the plastic pellets were produced 20 miles away and we blended our own color pellets. Everything in the plastic industry, IMPCO, etc, as well as all the computers, Wang, Digital. Bull, Nixdorf, Burroughs, all gone

 

Im saying we lost all to BANKS screwing US .
I'll work 49-59 hrs /week for good food and enough to pay my love of life within my means .
Taxes and the Banks suck it dry , hence Look around !!! squat here anymore . most mills are gone from here also..

Sloth

 

When no one is willing to be competitive with the market this is what happens . foreign companies are willing to work for less to have the work and no American will do that.

 

Well one of those major companies was a job of last resort for a machinist. If you needed a job for a few weeks you went there. They had an excellent retirement program with 10 year point until it was vested, no one I knew made it over 9 1/2 years and then gone, they bought out another big company with good benefits, moved it to Chicago for some tax benefits etc, then after they looted it, let it go belly up. Ended up no pensions, banks did a lot of damage, but the new school of management where short term profits and stock values as the main goal have done more to destroy this country than even Walmart. 80 % of the people in the cities and suburbs, shop at the same stores for the same products, and it almost all made overseas, the last of the small mom and pop stores are rapidly disappearing here with a new Dollar General in every small town and a Tractor Supply every 20 miles.
What really bugs me is when I pay extra for an old American brand I have used for years for electrical supply, same brand, same box, but when I open it up it now is made in China and outside lights that used to last 15 years now are lucky to last 3. Went to LED's and they are holding up OK.

 

I disagree, it's about the profit margins.And in USA we have labor laws, other countries, not so much