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History of 600/347v?

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tortuga

tortuga

Code Historian
Location
Oregon
Occupation
Electrical Design
mbrooke said:
More efficient. A transformer every couple of homes is impractical energy wise.
Click to expand...
Interesting point.
I consider anything about 220/240 off topic as, we have covered that before in our 220/127 and 416/240 volt threads :)
I am mostly interested some history of why Canada has never used 480 Volts as a standard voltage for electrical service from a utility to a customer.
For example when sizing a CT cabinet for Toronto Hydro (torontohydro.com) they don't even have 480 Volt size cabinet:
toronto_hydro_ct_sizing.png

I found where you can search old issues of 'Electrical World', and in the early 1900's it seems 550 volts was super common in AC and DC, but not yet 480 so perhaps the question should by why did the US ditch 600V and switch to 480 :unsure:
archive.org

Electrical world : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Vol. 1, no. 1-16 called also v. 14, no. 1-16 of the Operator
archive.org
 
tortuga

tortuga

Code Historian
Location
Oregon
Occupation
Electrical Design
I just looked up BC hydro's C.T meter specs, and they will provide 480 if the customer provides the transformers:
bc_hydro.png
 
mbrooke

mbrooke

Batteries Included
Location
United States
Occupation
Technician
tortuga said:
Interesting point.
I consider anything about 220/240 off topic as, we have covered that before in our 220/127 and 416/240 volt threads :)
I am mostly interested some history of why Canada has never used 480 Volts as a standard voltage for electrical service from a utility to a customer.
For example when sizing a CT cabinet for Toronto Hydro (torontohydro.com) they don't even have 480 Volt size cabinet:
View attachment 2554020

I found where you can search old issues of 'Electrical World', and in the early 1900's it seems 550 volts was super common in AC and DC, but not yet 480 so perhaps the question should by why did the US ditch 600V and switch to 480 :unsure:
archive.org

Electrical world : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Vol. 1, no. 1-16 called also v. 14, no. 1-16 of the Operator
archive.org
Click to expand...


I'm even more interested why 240/416 was used in Canada, and why it now appears to be falling to the way side 😮
 
mbrooke

mbrooke

Batteries Included
Location
United States
Occupation
Technician
Hv&Lv said:
So why did THEY change “back in the day”?

It has to do more with standardizing to neighbors, convenience and what’s available rather than any real hard and fast answer.

our neighbors use 110-120. Canada, Mexico, Belize, Cuba, the islands...Brazil is a mix...

Europe is more 220 after they standardized for convenience. Not because one is necessarily better.

admittedly, if your stringing wire through a neighborhood at 220 vs 120 then 220 is better. Some places do that. VD is rampant in those areas..(...wait for it...)

where we have transformers about every house or couple of houses it isn’t a big deal.
Click to expand...


230 is on order of magnitude better, safer and more efficient than 120. 120 offers zero advantages. Only negatives. Which is why I did away with it where I could 😁😎(y)


https://imgur.com/a/ttKDaLb

https://imgur.com/9ktRwat
 
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