Power supply in USA & England

[ppppenguin]

Since the US has a lower voltage supply than the UK the transformers need to be closer to people's houses to minimise voltage drop without spending a lot of money on thicker wires. So in urban and suburban areas in the UK is common practice to have a transformer in each street rather than one for every few houses.

One thing I noticed in the 'burbs around New York is that utility poles are rarely truly upright. A row of them looks like a group of drunks. Or perhaps that was just LILCO (Long Island Lighting Company) who don't have plumb bobs or spirit levels.

[hi_volt]

I guess it depends on where you live in the US. I grew up in the area just south of San Francisco in a house that was built in 1963, and all of power lines in my neighborhood were underground.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by ppppenguin

Since the US has a lower voltage supply than the UK the transformers need to be closer to people's houses to minimise voltage drop without spending a lot of money on thicker wires. So in urban and suburban areas in the UK is common practice to have a transformer in each street rather than one for every few houses.

Good point, 120 volts does require more copper and aluminum on the LV lines. I used to think the USA, Japan and the other places with 120 volts, did not have to be as thrifty with raw materials.

I noticed that the pole lines in Europe do not normally follow secondary roads but run direct from substations to villages across field and wood. A large, square pole-mount trans in a nearby field drops to 240 -3 phase WYE and 4 wires run from there in and around the village. In a small village in Germany, it seemed to hop from house to house as if walls were utility ppoles

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Good point, 120 volts does require more copper and aluminum on the LV lines. I used to think the USA, Japan and the other places with 120 volts, did not have to be as thrifty with raw materials.

I noticed that the pole lines in Europe do not normally follow secondary roads but run direct from substations to villages across field and wood. A large, square pole-mount trans in a nearby field drops to 240 -3 phase WYE and 4 wires run from there in and around the village. In a small village in Germany, it seemed to hop from house to house as if walls were utility ppoles

Our 120/240 volt, 3 wire wiring scheme is going to be with us for a lot longer.
The NEC mandated that no voltage higher than 120 volts to ground be present in a residence or small commercial setting, where untrained personnel would have access to the electrical system. Three phase systems would be 120/208Y.
The older electrical schemes, 120/240 delta, 240 and 480 corner grounded delta are NLA, but are supported by the POCO. Good riddence.

[Colly0410]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

In a small village in Germany, it seemed to hop from house to house as if walls were utility ppoles

Remember seeing power lines strung house to house in Malta as well. Their plugs & sockets are the same 3 flat pins as here in England, I didn't know this first time I went & took Euro/UK adapters that I didn't need..

[Telecolor 3007]

Heh, back in the days we had in Bucharest 120/208 Volts. Last area with this voltage was transfered to 220/380 Volts in 1976. It was in the city center, on Calea Victoriei (Way of the Victory) area. They introduced 220 Volts in some villages around Bucharest (in 1950 some becamed part of the city). Durring comunst regime new neibghours and some new buldigins where put directly to 220 Volts. I think in my are some apartament buldings constructed in 1963 had 220 Volts, while the old house had 120 Volts. The neiberghood was switch to 220 Volts in the late '60's?
Oh, the old transformers had 5.000 Volts coming from the big transformers (it was an are with 6.000 Volts). 5.000 = thousand. After that they rasied the voltage to 10.000 Volts (10 k.V.)
We have D.I.N. electric sockets.
Nowdays the Voltage is 230/400 Volts. And in some are the voltage that feeds up the area transformer is 20.000 Volts.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by ppppenguin

Since the US has a lower voltage supply than the UK the transformers need to be closer to people's houses to minimise voltage drop without spending a lot of money on thicker wires. So in urban and suburban areas in the UK is common practice to have a transformer in each street rather than one for every few houses.

One thing I noticed in the 'burbs around New York is that utility poles are rarely truly upright. A row of them looks like a group of drunks. Or perhaps that was just LILCO (Long Island Lighting Company) who don't have plumb bobs or spirit levels.

The LILCO installations have probably been there for a long time.
WE Energies just installed new distributions in this semi-rural area and they're perfectly plumb. The existing installations are starting to list rather badly.