Hi David, good question!
Inquiring minds want to know!
You got all the scientific and technical lowdown. Pull up a seat and I'll give you the laymans lowdown! Hee hee.
Very old houses didn't have 240.
They even had screw in fuses.
As for history, I'm not sure why 240 came along but I expect it had to do with selling something. Seems everything does.
Most all home here now have refrigerated air conditioning which pulls loads of current on 240. I don't think it's possible on 120. They call it 120 but actually it varies a good bit and my power supply builder says that's a problem that sometimes makes power supplies run hot.
When I was a kid in the 70's living in west Texas a dry climate, this transformation to refrigerated air was going on. Much to the delight of power utility cash registers I'm sure!!!
I remember homes as a kid not having
240. I think all clothes dryers require 240 but in those days most drying was done outside on clothes lines.
And seems now like electric cookstoves been around forever but they have not and of course they are
240.
In days gone by just 120 was common.
In town natural gas was piped to every house for heat, cooking,waterheating.
In the country you have propane or butane and in the northeast USA a tank for heating oil.
These days and for some time houses have been "all electric "
Sure gets cold when the lights go out!
I live five miles out of town. Dependable electric and propane.
The worst is only dial up Internet.
The best is low noise level.
But hey! We're cooking with gas!!
I was just talking to my friend in England. Everythings 240. All the bulky plugs are the same. Circuits different.
As for ham radio some amplifiers on 120 cause the room lights to dim a bit, you know they're quite usefull as modulation indicators. I'm sure they operate with less voltage drop on 240
And more stable and higher output.
Hams you are not satisfied with less than full power or even more.
I'm sure you've seen the 100w k3
Or heard about it doing 120w!
I've got a very old Gonset amp with 4 811 tubes(valves) that dimms lights.
Well it used to before it died!
Sent from my spy ring
73
Mike R
Amateur/Ham Radio KE5GBC
HF & Echolink
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