On 11 Apr 2002 at 12:48, A. Melon wrote: > Tim May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Thursday, April 11, 2002, at 06:59 AM, Mike Rosing wrote: > > > But the reason we have AC today is because Tesla requested no > > > royalties on his motor/generator. Something for Brands to think > > > about. > > > > No, we have AC because AC works better than DC in home wiring > > situations. > > Hmmm. I always thought the reason we went with AC was because at the > time, DC power couldn't cut it. They couldn't find any way to reliably > transfer DC power more than a half mile or so from the power plant, and > when trying to demonstrate it in NYC couldn't even get DC power all the > way up a multi-story building. >
It's like this: transformers work for AC and not for DC. Losses in transmission only depend on current, so if you can send high voltage low current through your transmission lines and then transform down at the other end you get less transmission losses. > Tesla's AC power solved this problem, after which Edison and his backers > started some kind of smear campaign saying that DC was safer and such. > Yes, the high voltage transmission lines were deadlier to squirrels. Lighting was the killer app for electricity, and it'll work fine off DC or AC. Motors will also (just make sure you have the right kind of motor), but if you just can have one thing coming out of your walls you're much better off with AC, even if most of your appliances work off DC, because it's easier to transform and recify AC to get a specific DC voltage than it is to do a DC-DC trasnformation. The only way you'd be better off with DC coming out of your walls would be if not only did all your stuff work off DC, but it all worked off the same DC voltage. I think you'll find that every place in the world that has power has AC coming out of its walls, even ones that just got electricity recently. It's not a historic accident, it's better. I hear that the primitives in Europe use 50 Hz AC. Our 60 Hz is clearly superior, because we need smaller transformers and capacitors to get the same effect. I had an idea for something even better than 60 Hz AC once, but I've forgotten what it was. George > Mr Anonymous
