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Why was 120V chosen as the standard voltage of homes in the US and not some other voltage?In: Home Electricity |
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Answer
Wellllll, in a way we do use 240. If you have 10 amps drawing on one leg of your 240/120 service, and 10 amps on the other leg, the I2R (Eye Squared Are is how that is pronounced) losses are one fourth what they would be if you had 20 amps on just the one leg. But I think that the Europeans use 480/240, so their I2R losses are 1/16th of our 120 volt losses (if you had the 20 amps on just one leg.)
Why not use 120?? We could use 220 or so like the Europeans only their alternating mains frequency (cycles per second) is 50Hz not 60Hz like ours. You could think 240 volts is too much in your house for simple stuff as you would get a worse beating/shock if you were working on stuff on your own. There are a whole ton of complicated other reasons having to do with transformers and transmission lines and the math involved. I recommend a book from Barnes and Nobles and a Hazelnut latte !!
Answer
The original voltage was actually 100 volts [see the link about William Stanley] and read up on Edison!
It now varies from 120 volts to 130+ volts due to transmission changes, to allow for increased loads and size of existing conductors.
First answer by Andy. Last edit by Martinel. Contributor trust: 143 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 178 [recommend question]
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