DIYbanter - View Single Post - Lead-free solder is such a PITA (rant/whinge)

Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...

On Sun, 11 Sep 2016 11:00:01 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

You mentioned something about lowering the voltage from about 250 to 240
volts. Have you checked to see if the voltage is still around 240 ?

It is.

historyWestern Australia's grid voltage was 254(+/-6%) as a result
of the move from 40hz to 50Hz a long time back. Actually the single
phase voltage was never *defined*, rather it was 440V phase-phase
(3-phase system).

Although it was/is not interconnected with the eastern states' grid
(which was 240V as far back as the landing or the Ark), pressure to
fall in line was brought to bear, particularly as appliances etc made
for the 240V system suffered reduced lifetime at 254V, although there
were incandescent lamps made for 250V if one hunted them down.

So the supply authority relented and cranked the grid back to 240V
where it has been ever since as a statutory requirement./history

Fine on the history of Australia's grid. Too bad all the coutries of
the world did not set one standard to go by. Most of the US seems to be
around a split system for the homes of 120 and 240 volts at 60 Hz.
There are some places that may have other odd values.

I worked in a large plant and most of the larger equipment was 480 volts
3 phase. The smaller equipment and offices were set for 120 or 240
volts.

Then we built a building of about 6 floors and while another and I were
calibrating some 3 phase heaters we could only get about 380 volts out
of the controler. Checked the incomming voltage and that was what we
had. Seems that the engineer had bought some equipment from a country
that required 380 volts. We were not told of this to start with and
found out about it when we were checking out the equipment.

Years ago in the US it seems that the standard was 110 and 220 volts,
then 115 and 230, now it is 120 and 240 volts. I hae a digital voltmeter
on my ham radio desk that stays on all the time. It is usually around
122 volts, but I have seen it between 118 and 124 volts depending on the
time of the year and day. I know it is accurate as I checked it against
some meters at work that were calibrated by a lab to the government
standrds.