23 Nov
2014
23 Nov
'14
2:12 p.m.
On 2014-Nov-23, at 1:15 PM, Holm Tiffe wrote:
Noel Chiappa wrote:
>> From: Holm Tiffe
>
>> I think the US should have modernized the entire System long before
>> now..
>
> Two words for you: 'installed base'. :-)
...
The two words make sense, but only now. It is to late
to change anything,
but in the past it was possible. We have taken the chance, the US not.
...
but sine you already have 240V outlets, it should be possible to change the
distribution slowly to 3 phase power.. it's a matter of time and the only
needed thing for compatibility are the transformers with modified
secondaries.
I don't think that this would ever happen since the US is the biggest US of
the world and other people are just dumb aliens, aren't they? :-)
All these systems have their varying benefits and detriments.
Between fire safety, shock safety, simplicity, ease of wiring, power efficiency, copper
efficiency, they all present a varying mix of trade-offs.
In Germany you readily have 3-phase in your house, but 3-phase wiring is not as simple as
split-phase.
The ring system in Britain with fuses in the plugs provides a safety factor of
appropriately limited current at the wall.
On the other hand, in NA the vast majority of in-wall house wiring is done with #14
wire(15A circuits), which is a lot easier to work than whichever gauge Britain uses for
25A or 32A circuits.
The benefit of the North American split-phase system vs EU/Britain is you have the energy
& copper-efficiency of 240V available for heavy appliances, but you have the safety
factor throughout the house of never having more than 120V between you and earth.
Yes, it makes me a little nervous having 15A available in the simple lamp socket at the
end of #18 wire, but it would make me more nervous if it was 240V at 3A.
But with that stone age power system you are stumbling
over your own feet
all the time..
NA has gone through various evolutions: getting rid of 25Hz, getting rid of DC mains,
requiring grounded outlets as standard, in my jurisdiction (for example) distribution
('pole-top') has evolved from 12KV to 25KV, etc.
The split-phase system may be the oldest but for residential use it's quite elegant
and efficient. 3-phase is there for where it's needed, commercial or multi-unit
residential buildings, it's done for smallish pump-houses within residential
neighbourhoods. In the big picture I haven't seen anything to suggest an overall
benefit to changing to some other system.
One could well suggest the reverse, that EU move away from that "highly
dangerous" 240V system.