Really? In branch circuits? I haven't heard of that since the 70's and the copper shortage.
Depends on the plant . Ours ranged from 69kv , 138kv , 230 kv , and 500kv .
Little to no effort. Look at the back of your power supply, should read 100-240 volts. The old ones from the 1990s had a little switch. Just find an appropriate plug (Like an NEMA 6-15P) and you're good to go.
Yeah all my stuff can run on various voltages, it makes it convenient when you travel. For my MacBook chargers all you need is the little plastic prong part that snaps into the charger. No other changes are necessary.
Not in 15 or 20 amp branch circuits, but circuits above 30 amps are commonly wired with aluminum such as your heat pump, air conditioner, range, wall oven. 30 amp dryer circuits tend to be wired with copper from what I've seen but I have seen one or two wired with aluminum.
Yeah perhaps that's common in VA. I've never seen any residential branch circuits here in Wisconsin wired with aluminum wire, regardless of ampacity.
All the stuff I've seen in VA was built after 1970, so that might have something to do with it. There wasn't much in this part of VA prior to then. I do get the impression that, nationwide, aluminum wire is as commonly used as I've observed here in VA.
Actually I was referring to residences here built in the past 20 years or so. In fact I've never seen it anywhere except for service entrance cables. Interesting to know.
Of course, that's why I simply indicated it can go higher than was indicated. Bruce has 4x 500kV links to the province for example, but also some 230's from back when Douglas Point was there and for serving more local loads.
For passive load, on the same resistance you do double the current and you could design it to run the same power on the device with different voltage.
That's not at all what I meant. I was only pointing out that if you have a lower voltage you can get the same power in a resistive load by increasing the amperage. Those Euro kettles don't heat the water faster because the voltage is higher, they heat it faster because they consume more power. This is facilitated by the higher voltage because it requires fewer amps, but if one wanted to you could do the same thing with 120 volts. But not on a 15A branch circuit.
Depends on the circumstances to get a lethal dose of current (miliamps) through the heart ... lots of people have been killed by 120 volts.
To add ... equipment designed to run on both 120v and 240v (with or without the little "120/240" switch) step the voltage down within the PS or AC/DC converter. Or the equipment needs to be designed specifically to run at either 120v or 240v (like motors, etc). Can't just apply 240v to a 120v resistive load for instance without putting 2 times the current and 4 times the power through to it (P=V^2/R).
Likely so! I've been fortunate over the years, with my handful of 120 V pokes being source to hand to leg to ground, rather than source to hand through chest to other hand to ground, which is much more likely to cause a heart arythmia. It's good practice to keep your non-working hand in a back pocket in these circumstances, so it cannot be the 2nd point of contact.
) Very high voltage, but very low current, so it shocks without harming you.
It is always the current that kills, not voltage.
