Xref: utzoo rec.travel:18627 rec.radio.amateur.misc:1058 sci.electronics:18878 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!koning.enet.dec.com From: koning@koning.enet.dec.com (Paul Koning) Newsgroups: rec.travel,rec.radio.amateur.misc,sci.electronics Subject: Re: large 110->220 transformers Message-ID: <21543@shlump.nac.dec.com> Date: 28 Mar 91 23:13:47 GMT References: <1991Mar28.190723.9681@athena.cs.uga.edu> <1991Mar28.211132.3521@bellcore.bellcore.com> Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com Reply-To: koning@koning.enet.dec.com Followup-To: rec.travel Organization: Digital Equipment Co., distributed systems architecture Lines: 21 |> |>European power differs from American power in three ways: the voltage |>is different (220/240V vs 110/120V), the frequency (50 vs 60 Hz) and |>the plug (the UK has one type, the Continent another, and both are |>quite different from the North American style). Converting plugs is |>easy; converting voltage is harder (you usually need a transformer) |>and converting frequency is hardest of all (you need a motor-generator |>set or AC/DC/AC rectifier/inverter combination - impractical in most |>cases.) |>... Actually, the story for plugs is a bit worse. If you don't need a ground, then indeed there are only two types to worry about. But you probably do want to ground stuff. In that case, there are a whole lot more variants: the continent uses a bunch of different locations for the grounding pin. According to my reference, the distinct cases are (1) Switzerland, (2) Italy, (3) Denmark, (4) Belgium/France, (5) the others. I've seen plugs that handle both (4) and (5), but the remaining cases each need their own plug. paul