Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Hamish Marson <hamish@××××××××××××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [Very OT] - Kill-A-Watt (240V Version) to measure my Gentoo Server Power Usage
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:27:35
Message-Id: 44DC4C39.5040608@travellingkiwi.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [Very OT] - Kill-A-Watt (240V Version) to measure my Gentoo Server Power Usage by Dale
1 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
2 Hash: SHA1
3
4 Dale wrote:
5 > Mike Williams wrote:
6 >> On Thursday 03 August 2006 19:27, James wrote:
7 >>
8 >>> The simplist solution is NOBODY puts a 240 VAC power supply
9 >>> into a computer unless it's going to draw some serious current
10 >>> (amps) thus by the nature of it being 240 VAC, you already know
11 >>> it is a power hog.
12 >>>
13 >> Now, I'm not electrical engineer, but I know my way around a fuse
14 >> board and electricity having fitted out both our new offices for
15 >> power, network, and some walls.
16 >>
17 >> In the UK, and most (if not all) of Europe, Africa, and Asia too,
18 >> run on about 240 volts, 230 +-10% I think now. Pretty much the
19 >> whole world, except the Americas.
20 >>
21 >>
22 >
23 > Well, the USA has the same coming in too. We have 220v to 240v
24 > coming in but that is split into different legs for the 110v to
25 > 120v stuff.
26 >
27
28 Unless those two legs are in phase, you're still only getting
29 110V-120V AC. IIRC (And it's from 20 years ago I'm working here) it's
30 not, it's just two legs of the 3 phase generated power. Which means
31 they're 120 deg out of phase, and so you still only get 110-120V. In
32 order to get 220-240V, you'd need 3 phase power.
33
34 I suspect you get two 110V lines because of current limitations. Not
35 to provide you with 220V which you'r enot going to get from just
36 adding two out of phase lines. (Unless of course the US has wired up
37 two in-phase separate 110V lines. In which case you can get 220V outof
38 it, but I seem to remember a lecture in Eng Sci saying it was common
39 to take 2 of 3 phases to a house in the US & alternate which 2 between
40 successive houses.
41
42 > If you are using transformers to reduce it from 220v to 110v, that
43 > will waste some energy right there. Transformers are not real
44 > efficient. If you touch it and it is warm, that is what you are
45 > wasting. That will also make whatever you are cooling with work
46 > harder too.
47 >
48
49 Plus you need twice the current at 110V vs 220V. (Volts are big 'V'
50 BTW! Named after Voltaire). This means higher line losses as loss is
51 proportional to current. Higher line losses mean that cable length
52 becomes more of a problem. (A 10V drop in 240V is less than 5%. 10V
53 drop in 120V is almost 10%. Much more significant).
54
55 All-in-all I prefer 240V single phase.
56
57 H
58 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
59 Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux)
60 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
61
62 iD8DBQFE3Ew5/3QXwQQkZYwRAlYaAJsGe3RCLAgWO6knje/rWXwD6S0irQCfcgsO
63 bkdH6utTMuvNYMUJ+5mEJmc=
64 =/bVW
65 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
66
67 --
68 gentoo-user@g.o mailing list

Replies