Re:Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V?
by TylerE on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @01:48PM
(#37311380)
Every computer power supply I've seen in the last 10 years or so is basically rated for input as something like '100-250v, 50-60hz. That way they work on virtually any power grid anywhere in the world, it's just a matter of having the right female IEC to male <local whatever> power cable.
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Re:Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V?
by mrguyorama on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @02:23PM
(#37311815)
Cheaper and older power supplies typically have a switch to change the input voltage. DO NOT attempt to plug in and turn on a power supply set to 110v to a 240 volt socket.
Re:Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V?
by Gibbon1 on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @03:03PM
(#37312320)
White paper I read 20-25 years ago described how those tend to work. Larger power supplies are required to be power factor corrected. They need to draw sinusoidal power in phase with the voltage. To do that they need a power factor correction front end. In the design the paper described what happens is 120VC gets rectified and stepped up to 240DC. Which then feeds a main DC/DC step down inverter.
I think the advantage of stepping up is the filter capacitors are cheaper for the higher voltage. I think because they handle half the current.