[Klaustrophobia]

... because trees can't knock down 220 volt lines?  the type of plug you use means your distribution never glitches?   

[redsniper]

The power lines just keep a stiff upper wire.

[MP-Ryan]

about the u.k's power supply
go read a U.S computer magazine in it you will find many adverts for Un-interruptible Power Supplies
in a U.K magazine you will see none

why ? our supply just works all the time....

That has more to do with the fact that you have 60 million people crammed onto an island smaller than a Canadian province in which every village is wired together   It`s a little tougher to ensure power is reliable everywhere in Canada and the US where there are 360 or so million people occupying an area larger than all of Europe. =)

Anyway, my comment was more to do with the fact that the Uk and Europe can`t seem to settle on a single common plug between them despite the fact that all of the 110V countries (IIRC) use the same plug.  That, and 220V-110V converters don`t work all that well... we spent the trip charging our phone and camera in 10 minute intervals so as not to fry the transformers in the plugs.  Fortunately we discovered that problem with the cheaper and redundant power cord for the baby monitor.

[MP-Ryan]

The accents are pretty similar though, although I could probably distinguish them given enough time or if they said 'how now brown cow'

It`s difficult, mainly because there are regional accents in both Canada and the US as well, though relatively "accentless" English is spoken in large areas of both countries (by accentless, I mean the type your ordinarily hear in films).

[yuezhi]

some aussies i know have no problem telling the difference.

[Nuke]

about the u.k's power supply
go read a U.S computer magazine in it you will find many adverts for Un-interruptible Power Supplies
in a U.K magazine you will see none

why ? our supply just works all the time....

That has more to do with the fact that you have 60 million people crammed onto an island smaller than a Canadian province in which every village is wired together   It`s a little tougher to ensure power is reliable everywhere in Canada and the US where there are 360 or so million people occupying an area larger than all of Europe. =)

Anyway, my comment was more to do with the fact that the Uk and Europe can`t seem to settle on a single common plug between them despite the fact that all of the 110V countries (IIRC) use the same plug.  That, and 220V-110V converters don`t work all that well... we spent the trip charging our phone and camera in 10 minute intervals so as not to fry the transformers in the plugs.  Fortunately we discovered that problem with the cheaper and redundant power cord for the baby monitor.

the problem with those converters is that the people that make them (china), like to take a perfectly good supply design, and to save money remove parts one at a time until the device fails catastrophically in a pseudo-scientific experimental sorta way (often without any engineering knowledge). then they back up one step and send the unit to production. they use this technique on every piece of electronics they manufacture, from phone chargers to pc power supplies. i like to examine dead pcbs to see how many components they skimped on. there have been cases where china has shipped adapters that have no components installed what so ever.  its amazing to see what they would do to save a quarter. id rather just pay the extra 25 cents (marked up to a buck by the time you can buy one) and get all the parts. so dont buy chinese power supplies.to be fair i bought a german made psu, and the thing failed after about 8 months of use. so the chinese arent the only one skimping on the parts.

[Mongoose]

I know my brother's laptop power supply was able to handle 220V power natively when he went to Vietnam for a few weeks, but I can't remember what he did (if anything) about his phone.  I do remember him buying some unholy socket adapter which had holes for pretty much every plug shape devised by man.

[Klaustrophobia]

some unholy socket adapter which had holes for pretty much every plug shape devised by man.

unholy socket adapter which had holes for pretty much every plug

unholy socket adapter which had holes

unholy

holes

amidoingthisrite?

[Mongoose]

no

[Nuke]

stop fondling eachothers holes!

[Grizzly]

The plumbing and electrical, even in new buildings, feel and act like they are also 400 years old.  This 220-240 V **** is just ridiculous.  And maybe London manages decent water pressure, but nowherev between York and Edinburgh can.

220-240 volts are not ridicilous and 400 years old. Your 110 volts are .
Power loss due to heat in cables can be calculated by IR^2 (or was it I^2*R?), where I is the amount of amperes and R si the radious of the cable.
Amount of power is W = UI, where W = watt, U is volts, and I is ampere. Your computer, for example, needs 350 wats to run, and it does not matter how many volts or how many amperes go trough there, as long as the sum of the equiation is 350 watts (you can, theoritically, build power supplies which work with 1 volt).
By increasing the amount of volts (U), you lower the amount of amperes (I). By lowering the amount of amperes, you thus get less power loss due to heat in cables, which is why having 220 volts is more energy efficient then 110 volts.

[z64555]

It's I² R

You can derive this by substituting the V term in Ohm's law with the V term in the equation for electrical power:
P = V I   ; Supplied power
V = I Z   ; Ohm's Law (Z is impedance, includes AC components along with DC components)

substituting:
P_loss = I² Z      ; Power loss due to resistances/impedances
P_loss = V² / Z   ; (Alternative form)

Therefore, if you want to transmit power over large distances, you can up the AC voltages and lower the AC current (Total power supplied is the same). DC transmission lines can't do this, but depending on your situation (namely distance between power plant, substations, and power sinks/clients) DC can be better suited than AC.

US Lines are actually supplied as 220 - 240 split-phase, which is supplied via two hot wires (180 degrees out of phase to each other) and one common. House and industry wiring inside the breaker box can take the voltage across one hot and the common to get 110 - 120 V_AC, or take the voltage across both hot wires to get the total 220 - 240 V_AC.

Lastly, three-phase supply lines, (mostly industry) is supplied via three hot (120 degrees out of phase of each other) and one common/nuetral lines. These are again 110-120 per hot wire, but can be summed up to 330-360 V_AC for Wye- or Delta-loads. The common line may be used for single phase, or it can be used for Wye-type loads which have each leg connected between one hot and common, while the Delta-loads are connected between two legs. Trying to do a dual-phase off a three-phase supply isn't recommended.

Wye:
A --/\/\/--|
B --/\/\/--|
C --/\/\/--|
n ---------|

Delta:
A --/\/\/-- B

B --/\/\/-- C

C --/\/\/-- A

n -|
    =
There's also a limit as to how high you can get the voltages across the transmission lines, since dielectric breakdown of materials (including air) occurs at very high voltages. The human body can withstand an electric flashover so long as whatever electric current that happens to go through the heart isn't above 1mA or so, which is why Nikola Tesla didn't barbeque himself when he was demonstrating his high-voltage shenanigans.

[redsniper]

Yeah, we do have 220 V in some sockets, like for dryers and stuff.

[Mongoose]

That's right, I forgot about the uber-plugs for the washer and dryer.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

So wait, the US has two different socket voltages? Are the sockets physically different, to prevent putting a 110V plug into a 220V socket?

[Scotty]

The US has two different socket voltages in so far as the average washing machine and dryer use a 220 V socket.  They're very hard to mistake.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, the heavy-duty washer/dryer type plugs are substantially bigger than your normal outlet, and the prongs/slots have a different arrangement too.

[Klaustrophobia]

So wait, the US has two different socket voltages? Are the sockets physically different, to prevent putting a 110V plug into a 220V socket?

we actually have more than that, but there's really just the one standard 120v, and the rest are for particular applications, like the aforementioned washer/dryer outlets.  the lab building i was in at school had 3-phase outlets of varying voltages available to supply equipment.  and yes, they all have different plugs.  although we defeated that by swapping face plates or just sticking copper wire straight into the slot.  what?  no, we weren't running 5000 volt equipment off of it.  and the amps we drew were never enough to melt the insulation.

[deathfun]

[yuezhi]

*takes a good look at switzerland


*then denmark
O HAI, u like twilight?

i wonder why i never noticed this on my travels.