bob wrote:

On Oct 30, 4:01 pm, Randy wrote:

This group seems to have alot of electrical knowledge, sooo.....

The US is 60 HZ and Europe is 50 HZ, a 60HZ motor is more efficient,
so, what would happen if the US or the world for that matter would
switch to 120 HZ or maybe even as high as 400HZ (which is common in
aircraft). Motors and transformers would be much more efficient,
power savings could be enormous, both in transmission and use.

I realize this would have to be a 50 to 100 year task. Laws would
need to be passed and electronic devices would need to be sold that
would work on both frequencies. (many switching power supplies such as
in computers do not care what freq. power is input.)

I've read a bunch of articles about the newer inverter type welding
power sources that use 400 HZ and use small transformers and use much
less input power for the same output power.

I'm guessing it would take a panel of "experts" a few years to work
out the costs VS savings for this one. I've heard of some really
stupid things being studied by our government, maybe someone should
look into this.

I bought some old machinery from the Bethlehem Steel plant that was 25
cycle, WOW, talk about inefficient!! I had a 5hp motor that was built
on a 15 hp frame size.

Ideas, thoughts??

Biggest problem I think would be the generating end of things.

Thank You,
Randy

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I think that you are mixing up size and efficency. The higher the
frequency the size for a certain power output decreases. But ! the
losses from eddy currents and the like increase. There is a crossover
point which was below 50 hz in the old days ....most of the old
generating stations were 25 hz and even 16 2/3 Hz.
Today with modern steels and thinner laminations the cross over point
is much higher. But that is not the only point to consider ! with high
voltage transmission lines the losses climb with frequency and
distance. The very big long ones even use DC !

Interesting you mention DC transmission lines. My neighbours were in
China last year and saw the new big dam, they were told the generating
station produced 500kV AC for local use and 500kV DC for long distance
transmission. Subsequently I have been told that some UK electricity is
supplied by France as DC. My question is what sort of gear is used to
convert the DC to AC. A big motor generator unit?.


Regards Bob