Reducing mains voltage to 220V to cut bills...

[Murphyv310]

Being a really dumb transportee to straya,
I thort watts was watts?
lower voltage more amps = same watts just more heat and stress on insulation.
higher volts less amps= same watts but more heat and stress on insulation.

I am NOT shooting down the theory, just questioning basic sums, er I mean mathematics.

And in my 70th year, I have NEVER seen a method to reduce power thats required for a particular load!!.

Even if it does have swinging weights on the turntable.

PLAIN tungsten light bulbs perhaps yes, because its almost exclusivly resistive.
A heating radiator? a big coil of Nichrome wire on a ceramic former? yes, because essentially its a big resistor.

Joe

Hi.
To an extent you are correct. A 2kw load at 20v will require 100 amps so the cross section of the feeder cable will have to be substantial due to resistive losses at 200v the same 2kv load takes 10 amps so you can use thinner cable, hence the high voltage power lines use relatively thin cable, if they carried 220v imagine what would have to be used!
Efficiency will reduce power usage, a radio with a dropper is inefficient as the dropper produces wasted heat, great in winter possibly but useless in summer temperatures, so either fit a transformer, diode dropper or capacitor, the diode being the worse option. Same with filament bulbs, replace with LED, there is more but I'd get boring.