Line voltage

[Ed Richards]

Hi Murray;
See my post to Mike Hardie. My understanding is that we started out at
100 VDC, a nice round number, probably set by Edison when he installed
the world's first street lights. It soon became apparent that a higher
voltage (and hence a lower current ) was desirable for cost of wire,
weight, bulk, etc. Ever since then the power companies have been slowly
raising it to cut distribution costs, weight on poles, size if conduit,
etc. I recently inspected a home under construction in Germany where 220
VAC is the standard, and it looked like the whole house was wired with
bell wire. Thanks.
Regards,
Ed Richards


On Mon, 5 Apr 1999 01:17:28 -0400 "Murray" <multi-volti at softhouse.com>
writes:
>I never understood where 117 came from, or 110. In school, they tried
>to
>convince us that 120 'naturally' comes from line-to-ground in a 208
>3-phase
>system, the God-given 'natural' source of power. I was a little
>hesitant,
>but I did understand the trig relationship that explained it. (120
>degrees
>phase difference between 3-phase 'lines') We don't have 3-phase in
>our
>residential neighborhood.
>
>Murray
>
>Murray
>

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