Different country and all, but both are 240v in my neck of the woods, and since I live on tank water with mains water supply as a back up. Coupled with what I believe may be the most circuitous route from hot water cylinder to kitchen tap on earth (3 meters point to point yet seeming out to the local post office and back based on how long it takes to get hot water out of the tap) we use the Dishwasher to heat our water.
Which is all a very verbose way of saying “It depends on your circumstance…”
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
US doesn’t get 240v at most outlets unfortunately. My hot water to the kitchen is 50-60 ft as it goes up to the 2nd floor attic, across maybe 45 ft, then back down.
shads@leminal.space 2 weeks ago
Takes a couple of litres of water before we get hot water. I have filled the kettle twice before the water was too hot to hold my hand under before. That’s roughly 3.5 litres of water just to get to the hot stuff. Luckily boiling water was a key consideration in our voltage level (actually that’s something I made up on the spot 😜) but more power equals good so… Its weird that this is a field that the US apparently just decided to let a large portion of the world be more “powerful” almost expect that if there were parts of the world settling on 240v the US would arbitarily decide they needed 500v.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 weeks ago
Are you going to pay to change the entire electrical grid, rewire every house, replace every appliance, etc.
It would be an unimaginably massive undertaking for very little gain.
The US electrical system was well-established when Europe had to rebuild post-WWII.
shads@leminal.space 2 weeks ago
I always thought the decision was made a lot earlier than that. Wasn’t it largely due to Westinghouse that America settled on 60hz 110v? Where AEG pushed 50hz 220v in Europe? That was late 1800s early 1900s from memory. World war 2 may have resulted in some rebuilding but they rebuilt along lines that were already established, the bump up to 230-240v with time and gained efficiencies is mirrored in the US with the move towards 120v at least that’s what I recall, but I must admit that outside of some Technology Connections videos I haven’t delved too deeply in recent years (and yes I know Alec would say the US technically already sends 240v but that’s not what your general appliances are rated to).