On Sunday, 27 July 2014 20:12:35 UTC+1, David Paste wrote:

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?





David Paste.

All other things being equal, the only reason for not having widespread electricity distribution in 2014 would be if the filament lamp had never been invented, which was the original 'killer app' to make public electricity supply a viable business. The problem before that was "sub-dividing the electric light", as in the 19th century, before filament lamps were invented, only arc lamps were available, and these were only practical for large outputs, so tended to be used with local generators at about 100v DC, 70v being needed to maintain an arc in air, the rest for the regulating resistance to limit the current.

Eventually discharge lamps (mercury, sodium, etc) would be developed, but not in domestic sizes, these are more efficient on AC supplies, allowing the use of transformer ballasts, so things would have panned out at 440v 50Hz three-phase, for induction motors in industry, stepping down to 110v single-phase for power tools and discharge lighting, supplied by local generation from natural gas or diesel engines.

In the UK and other countries with natural gas supplies, domestic lighting would be by gas mantles, with no general distribution of electricity, instead household thermo-electric generators could be used for powering electronic equipment at 50v DC, so avoiding the need for shock protection measures, and gas for everything else, with LPG cartridges for portable appliances such as irons, places that did not have gas supplies could use kerosene or LPG cylinders.