[RE-wrenches] AC voltage in North America

[Joel Davidson]

Hello Darryl,

I tip my hat in honor to your many years working with electricity. 110 volts was Edison's choice for direct current. Then Tesla/Westinghouse chose higher voltage alternating current stepped down to 120 volts. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents 115-volt AC/DC universal motors in drills and other tools were fairly common until low-cost induction motors became widespread.

Best regards,
Joel Davidson

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Darryl Thayer 
  To: RE-wrenches 
  Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 7:18 PM
  Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] AC voltage in North America


        When I was an electrical apprentus back in the late 40's we called it 110/220 then in the fifties the voltage was reised to 115/230  and some time in the 1960 it was raised to 120 240 

        Darryl

        --- On Mon, 10/18/10, Marco Mangelsdorf <marco at pvthawaii.com> wrote:


          From: Marco Mangelsdorf <marco at pvthawaii.com>
          Subject: [RE-wrenches] AC voltage in North America
          To: "'RE-wrenches'" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
          Date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 8:27 PM


          I just don’t understand it.



          Lots of people—from reporters to homeowners—consistently refer to the AC voltage in their homes as “110/220.”



          Where does this come from?



          If North American utilities were putting out power at that voltage range, they would be in serious trouble.



          Anyone able to educate me on this matter?



          marco




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