Why Europe uses 240V at 50Hz but America uses 120V at 60Hx
In: Technology
240 volts is better in that it’s more efficient. Europe was mainly 120 like North America (or 127 volts- derived from three phase 240 volts), but adoption of appliances like refrigerators and washing machines that couldn’t be converted lagged compared to North America. Then a lot of the electrical infrastructure was destroyed in WWII so they were able to start over with a clean slate, with higher, more efficient voltages and receptacles that provided mechanical protection like shutters and being recessed in the wall to prevent people from coming in contact with those voltages.
50 hz is because they were adopting metric by this time and didn’t like the 60 number.
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