The Underscore Archives

On 11 Aug 2006, at 14:13, Chris Dawson wrote:


> i remember douglas adams raising a point many years ago - with so many
> electrical items stepping down to 12V, why isn't there a push for an
> integrated 12V household circuit to accompany the main ring?
> we could do away with all the  transformer blocks, i can count at  
> least 15
> under my 2 desks. i'm convinced it would save energy - they're all  
> hot.

I'm not sure how much difference it would make within a home, but the  
lower the voltage, the more is lost through the resistance of the  
wiring. This is why the national grid runs at such high voltages, and  
there need to be substations all over the place just to step it down  
to 240.

M