Questions tagged [mains]

Mains electricity, typically a higher voltage AC waveform used to deliver electrical power to households. In North America 120V, 60Hz, in most European countries 230V, 50Hz. What most people will plug appliances into.

Mains electricity, typically a higher voltage AC waveform used to deliver electrical power to households. In North America 120V, 60Hz, in most European countries 230V, 50Hz. What most people will plug appliances into.

Because it is so ubiquitous, many electrical devices are designed to plug directly into wall outlets, even if internally they convert that power to a more convenient voltage -- often , , or .

In turn, for efficiency reasons or compatibility with the above devices or both, many electrical systems deliver electrical power at standard mains voltage and more-or-less standard frequencies and waveforms, converting from power distribution systems or from "12 V" power.

A few systems use the same wires that carry mains electrical power to also carry data.

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How do electricians know where the line is down?

I had a power outage and I thought about the utility poles near the street. How do electricians know which power line is down considering that there are many miles of them? For example, if there's a car that crashed into the pole and brought the…
netrox
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Why does turning on my desk lamp crash my board?

Whenever I turn on my desk lamp, my board crashes. Sometimes I get garbage out of the serial port, sometimes it resets. I tried adding some extra bypass capacitors on my breadboard, but that made no difference. (My desk lamp uses a 20W, 12V halogen…
Toby Jaffey
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Why have electricity travel across the country at 1,150 kV?

The Powerline Ekibastuz–Kokshetau in Kazakhstan holds the record for having the highest operating transmission voltage in the world, running at over 1 megavolt. Why did they choose to deliver energy this way? EDIT: If higher voltage means thinner…
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What have countries gained by increasing/decreasing mains voltage by 10V?

Reading the list of standard plug and socket types on Wikipedia, I see that countries have made their mains voltage higher or lower. For example, in Mainland Britain (Wales, Scotland, England) the voltage has been lowered to 230V from 240V. On the…
Dean
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What does the US power supply waveform look like?

I know that we (typically) get 120 V AC in USA, but what does the waveform look like? Can anyone post a pic? How many phases are there, and what's the peak voltage?
vishvAs vAsuki
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Overhead transmission line crossing over interstate highway

I live in Minnesota, and a few years back, Excel Energy constructed a massive power line stretching from Monticello, MN to Fargo, ND. This is not the exact photo of the power lines, but it's very similar in design: The power line is wired on only…
Jasper
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Where has 150 Vac mains voltage been used?

Interestingly, on the rear of this instrument from the early 70s, one of the mains input voltage options is 150 Vac (note that all of the remaining ones are not too unusual---100 V in Japan; 115 V in the older US; 127 V in some island nations; 220 V…
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How is an AC signal offset?

In three-phase the 2nd and 3rd phase are offset by about 120 degrees(\$\frac{2\pi}{3}\$ radians). But how is this achieved? The concept that just each phase is offset by 120 degrees sounds easy but designing a circuit for this looks more difficult.…
Dean
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Have 60A 220V circuit, want to use one 110V leg of it. Can i?

I have an 220V air compressor (30A) in the attic of my garage. It has a 110V automatic drain valve connected to it. A the breaker box downstairs I want to be able to turn the power off to BOTH. Ideally I could simply turn off the 220V circuit (the…
tig
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What are these spirals for?

A friend of mine made this photo on Mallorca of a overhead power line. In my opinion the spirals are aviation obstruction markers. Any different information?
Uwe
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Line to ground voltage

Our plant has a 3 phase line to line connection when I test the voltage from line to line in the supply side of the main breaker it reads 230 volts but when I test line to ground, line 1 reads 196 volts, line 2 is 111 volts and line 3 is also 111…
pitz0360
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How many mains frequencies are there?

How many different frequencies have or are being used, and what for? Also, what do they sound like? I have heard of 25, 16.66, and 400 to 500hz in planes. Are there others?
bobiscool
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What electrical anomaly can cause RCBOs to trip in apartments in several buildings at the same time?

Once I had a weird electrical event in an apartment building I live in. Suddenly the Residual Current Circuit Breaker with Overload protection (I'm sure it's exactly this kind of device) in the main panel serving my apartment tripped. When I opened…
sharptooth
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Will mains kill me if I'm using an adapter?

I'm sorry this is an ignorant question. I am working on hooking up leds for my raspberry pi. I keep hearing about mains power and how dangerous it is. I'm using a 5v adapter that is plugged into an outlet. If something goes wrong and I get shocked…
Scott
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How is Switching between standard electricity and solar/other electricity achieved?

I'm contemplating various ways of using renewable energy, but I'm also interested in learning more about the subject. At the moment I'm trying to understand a few aspects: How to measure and track when traditional energy is used rather than…
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