The US electrical system is not 120V
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Channel: Technology Connections
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Length: 24min 25sec (1465 seconds)
Published: Mon Jun 22 2020
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Oh god...here we go.
That kind of means, that we in Europe have 400V power grids
Edit: Ok, I have watched more of the video.
You guys have 2 phases offset 180 degrees from the other one with a voltage difference of 240V and 120V to neutral of 120 Volts,meanwhile we got 3 phases offset 120 degrees from the other ones with a voltage difference of 400V each and 240V to neutral.
Watched the entrierty of the video:
You even showed a nice picture of the 3 phase power we use here in Europe, but we just got (almost) double the voltage across phases which results in this, which in my opinion is a very practical reason for the higher voltage.
After all this gives use the possibilty to get even more power from our outlets without high amperage
I never realized that gas dryers would be foreign to some. I had always assumed gas was the way to go being cheaper n all, and that electric was the “new” thing that we were still trying to nail the efficiency down on.
I have very fond memories as a kid trying to find a good angle to watch the flame do its thing
Anyone else flinch every time Alec stuck the multimeter into the fuse box terminals?
Pretty interesting, I have seen that in the west 2 phase connections to residential are very common, but here (Bosnia) I have only seen either 1-phase or 3-phase connections. The 3-phase connector is unique since it was only ever in use in ex-Yugoslav countries. I took a photo!
It's basically 400V. Image. The only connector I had that was accessible. For single-phase, we use the Schuko plug so that's nothing special. These connectors are only used in electrical stoves and ovens in homes.
You were harping on your breaker box being quite unimpressive, but here are the ones in use here. Honestly they look so flimsy compared to the US ones. Close-up. I have one of these for every floor in a 2-floor house and I have 3 screw-in type breakers at the main electrical box for every phase.
Also, we have these for electric water heaters. We also place all the switches on the outside of the bathroom but leave the sockets inside which is weird for many people not from here.
So uh, just how bad is it for a grid to be constantly fluctuating in voltage?
I live in a county that is supposed to be 110v but in my town it's an average of maybe 90v-100v but that is with constant jumping around. It can get as high as 140v and as low as 40v-50v, I'll regularly see multiple hours of 70v-75v delivery.
And as a side note my entire neighborhood has no ground so I regularly get shocked by computer cables and metal casings on my electronics.
I'm no expert, but the research I did says the shocks should be a floating voltage of around half my mains. So pretty low in my town, but I still imagine constant 30-40v shocks can't be good for my heart long term.
The whole 120V thing seems like somebodys afterthought that "gee we don't always need that much(240V) power.
There are some neighborhoods in my city (Reykjavik, Iceland) that use the center ground method as well, as a country running on 230v. It's kind of a hack living there, as many people have 115v wired to their kitchen to be able to use those sweet sweet inexpensive electronics from the US without a transformer.
Not sure why they built it like that, and only for such a brief period. Maybe it was built with equipment acquired from the US military base.
Pinched from interestingasfuck, the truth