[As always, please anonymize my email address.]
>
> John H>> My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the
>> world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the
>> US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences
>> are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller
>> number are run.
>> Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place,
>> and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US
>> media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the
>> article, it was Japan.
> Nice theory, but a few seconds with Google would have saved you the
> trouble of expounding it. In fact, there are MORE than two different
> electrical systems in the world; the existence of two chief voltage
> ranges (110ish vs. 220ish) is only one of the differentiators. The
> other big one is the frequency of the AC (50 Hz vs. 60 Hz). And there
> are several different physical connector standards (plugs and sockets)
> even to serve some of the same voltage/frequency combinations, though
> of course this does not affect things like transformer load.
> The US is hardly alone in using 110v at 60 Hz; so does most of the
> rest of the western hemisphere. Most of the eastern hemisphere uses
> 220-240v, but one of the exceptions is in fact Japan, which uses 100v
> (though part of the country runs at 60 Hz and the other part at 50
> Hz). So, any conclusions made on the faulty premise that Japan uses
> 220v power must be discarded.
Interesting point about the 50/60 Hz in Japan. Maybe this is the reason most computer power supplies can switch between not only voltage but frequency.