On Sunday, July 27, 2014 8:12:35 PM UTC+1, David Paste wrote:

Hello all.
The world has a few differing domestic electrical standards, 100, 120,
240 volts, 50 and 60 Hz and so on. Industrial customers have yet more.
Distribution via high voltage AC, and now DC in places.
I understand why various areas of the world have these differences - due
to historical reasons, etc.
My question is that if we were to have a brand new electrical system,
common to all areas, what would, or could, it be? Still AC? 300 volts?
Different frequency?
No real reason to ask other than idle curiosity.
Thanks in advance,
David Paste.

If to run existing appliances, 230v. If if were done in say 1900, maybe a bit higher voltage to save copper.

Frequency? Maybe 200 or 400Hz. It cuts the cost of transformers, reservoir caps, speed control caps, motor caps. Also cuts the cost of some motors, but increases the cost of some. It would however mean increased cost of power station generators and using dc links between transmission zones - really need a spreadsheet to work out what frequency would give the lowest total cost.

AC for transformers, cheaper switches, longer lived lamps, etc etc. The main downside of ac is limited transmission zones, but long distance links are better dc now anyway.

I suspect multivoltage distribution around the house would make sense, adding 12v & 5v.


NT