On 08/08/17 14:15, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 2017-08-08 14:12, Paul Groves wrote:
On 08/08/17 00:53, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 2017-08-08 00:17, Dave Howorth wrote:
On Mon, 7 Aug 2017 18:43:06 +0100 Paul Groves <> wrote:
The voltage limits are Europe-wide, incidentally. They were 'harmonised' a while ago. To 230, I think. The UK is still largely at 240. Germany... I seem to recall had a higher voltage.
We are still at 240V but the law in the UK is 230V +10% maximum (253V) -5% mimimum (218.5V)
I personally think 240 makes more sense as it would always require an even number of turns on the transformer. Also, especially in pre-calculator days as it is divisible by 12 so easy to calculate. (e.g. 240v to 12v is a 20:1 transformer). Simple eh..
230 is a compromise, so that all countries have the same voltage, thus facilitating travel and commerce. Spain had 220, going to 240 would need replacing most of the appliances. As it it, they changed the voltage silently, causing appliances, specially bulbs, to fail earlier.
As I understand it, they changed the standard a LOOONNGG time ago, and new appliances had to match the new European standard. So that was maybe 40 years ago. Then they changed the supply a fair while later, so by then the majority of old national standard stuff had already died and most kit actually extant could cope with the new voltage. Cheers, Wol -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org