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| Fix the voltage campaign (Australia) |
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| james_s:
--- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on January 11, 2021, 06:56:45 pm ---You forgot about flashbulbs, which have a rated life of a few milliseconds. :-DD --- End quote --- Those could arguably be classified as pyrotechnics more so than light bulbs. The light comes from burning magnesium in a pure oxygen environment, not an incandescent glow from a hot filament. |
| tom66:
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on January 12, 2021, 12:20:33 am ---I got suckered when I bought a "Wertheim" vacuum cleaner, a so-called "top of the line" model which was purported to be "German designed".(After all, it had a nice "pretend" German name,) All I can say is the designers had never seen the inside of an Engineering classroom. More likely drawn on the back of a placemat at the local boozer! Needless to say, it was bloody useless, never operating for more than10 minutes before overheating, the hose continually blocking because the dumbos ran the wiring for the "power head" loose though it. (Our little 15 year old Toshiba had wires running in the hose, too, but they were embedded in the wall.) The Wertheim was chucked into the shed, & the poor, old, long suffering Toshiba put back into service. After a few attempts to fix the POS, it went to the verge rubbish pickup. After some years, the venerable Toshiba finally failed, & was replaced by a $A50 "Ozito"canister vacuum cleaner, which has worked admirably for several years. --- End quote --- I recently got rid of our absolutely junk Zanussi vacuum cleaner - my mother had an old one that lasted 30+ years and I made the mistake and 'impulse bought' a cheap Zanussi for my new flat. What a piece of junk! The motor eventually died on it after about a year and a half, probably the brushes, but the construction made it near-impossible to easily access the motor without essentially destroying the appliance. To replace it we bought a Miele, it was about 3x as expensive as the Zanussi and had a lower power rating. It: - cleans better - runs quieter - doesn't produce as much dust out the back as it seems to suck up - so far doesn't smell of burnt brushes Most of my home is now full of appliances from manufacturers I have trust in because I have repaired similar devices in my travels. I do not get bitten twice. |
| GlennSprigg:
--- Quote from: cdev on January 11, 2021, 03:27:13 am ---Do parts of Australia still use the differently phased power grid? I think it used the ground as the return? --- End quote --- Sorry if it's a bit old here mate, but that's an good & understandable question! :-+ Here in Australia, we transmit power at many varying voltages, depending on the distance. Ranging from 275-kv, right down to typically 11-kv into the Suburbs. All this is via 3-Phase Delta. Usually, the final legs in our typical streets is 11-kv (Delta) to 415v (Star connections), and so producing a virtual 'neutral' at the star-point. The result of this is to create 240v from each phase to the star-point, being the common 'Neutral'. You will find in the typical street, that every 3rd or 4th house is connected to varying phases, including the common star-point. Even though this is so, our switchboards have a main earth, as well as a link from the main earth bar to the neutral bar. We call this a M.E.N. link, which means Mains-Earth-Neutral. Now partially answering your question.... In some typically remote Country/Farm locations, there is a system known as S.W.E.R., which stands for 'Single Wire Earth Return'. For that, there is a typically 9.6kv single wire transmission through the majority of the transmission, where at the farms etc, has a 9.6kv to 415v/240v transformer, where the 'HV' uses Earth as the return! (Reduced cabling!) :phew: Interesting addendum.... Different countries use different HV transmission voltages. This is mainly due to to countries local cost for copper/aluminium as opposed to cost of towers/insulators etc!! Although the higher 'HV' seems better, the local cost is a different story!! |
| Sal Ammoniac:
--- Quote from: james_s on January 12, 2021, 05:04:26 am --- --- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on January 11, 2021, 06:56:45 pm ---You forgot about flashbulbs, which have a rated life of a few milliseconds. :-DD --- End quote --- Those could arguably be classified as pyrotechnics more so than light bulbs. The light comes from burning magnesium in a pure oxygen environment, not an incandescent glow form a hot filament. --- End quote --- True, but they're still a "bulb" intended to produce light. We still call CFLs and LEDs bulbs despite their not being based on an incandescent glow from a hot filament. |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on January 12, 2021, 05:46:07 pm ---True, but they're still a "bulb" intended to produce light. We still call CFLs and LEDs bulbs despite their not being based on an incandescent glow from a hot filament. --- End quote --- Well, yes, but context. In my post I was specifically discussing incandescent lamps. I left out a wide range of other electric light sources with longer and shorter lifespans, higher and lower efficiencies and other characteristics. |
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