120 V 230 Volts mains, which is best?

[colly0410]

Thanks for interesting comments. I thought 220/240 volts would come out on top. I understand most high wattage gubbins (stoves, AC units, etc) in USA use 240 volts, I remember the stove in our rental app was 240 volts & all the sockets were 120 volts. I've got a mate (an ex NCB electrician) who emigrated there & has some British & shuko sockets fed at 240 volts in his workshop, not sure that would be strictly kosher though. Did any Countries ever use a higher domestic voltage than 240?

[Terry]

Going by the voltage adjustments on a wide range of radios and TVs, anywhere from 190V to 250V in the UK alone, depending on the whim of the local authority who usually provided the power pre-nationalisation. This was later standardised to a uniform 240V AC, of course.

Where I grew up in Grays, Essex, it was 230V AC from the time I was first able to take in such things.

In West Ham, where I went to secondary school from 1955 - 60 it was 215V AC. I remember all the pavements around the school being dug up to lay new cables for the move to 240V AC.

At the same time, Ilford was 200V DC as Ilford Town Council found this a convenient fit for its 600V DC traction power supply generation for the trams.

No doubt similar variations existed in other countries as electricity supply systems evolved and I guess all those 250V settings on UK sets must be a pointer to supplies slightly higher than 240V at sometime, somewhere in the UK.

[ppppenguin]

As a kid I dimly remember the mains voltage in north Lonon as being nominal 250V.

I have a feeling some middle east countries used nominal 250V.

[Paul_RK]

1930s editions of the Broadcaster Trade Annual include supply voltage and periodicity, if any, for the "principal provincial towns", and a right old mix it was. Several places in 1933 - Bedale, Bettws-y-Coed, New Radnor and Thetford among them - had 110 V supplies, while at the other end of things some had only primary supplies of 400 or 440 V. Bourton-on-the Water 120, Leyburn 130, Somerby 100, Oldbury 110 or 190. Mostly at 50 cycles, but a fair few at 25 or 40 or 100. Glasgow Corporation is listed as providing 250 and 440 V AC , and 250 or 6500 DC, but presumably the last of those wouldn't have been available to the ordinary householder (anyone for transformerless mains-derived EHT? )

[Alistair D]

Could the Glasgow 6500V supply be used to power a tram network?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Co...n_Tramways

Al

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
I have a 1916 Electrical Engineers Handbook......... that is interesting reading and the variation of supplies in itself fascinating. Also the number of even fairly big towns without and power at all quite surprising.
The book also has a section on repair and maintenance of motors including some novel motor start arrangements.

[Terry]

6,500V DC overhead street traction power for a tram network? I very much doubt it!

600V DC is standard - if it is a misprint, I'd accept 650V DC as a possibility. However, when Glasgow Corporation electrified the the cable hauled subway railway in the mid 30s, it was 600V third rail so that would suggest that the tramway was electrified to the same voltage.

Don't forget that when the former LNER line out of Liverpool Street was finally electrified in 1949, it was only 1,500V DC, the same as used on the Manchester to Altricham line since 1931. It seems unlikely that any higher voltage would have been used anywhere - in the UK, at least

[pwdrive]

The Alty electric trains were green, each compartment had two bench seats, no corridor, done the Alty-Manchester run in them many times.

Lawrence.

[Refugee]

What voltage do these modern trams run on?

[Alistair D]

I had no idea what voltage trams ran on so it was a total guess.  Today I have learned something new.

Al