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).
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 week ago
The US uses many smaller circuits. I have two appliance circuits, a lighting circuit, a dedicated refrigerator circuit, and a 240V range circuit. Five separate electrical circuits, just for my kitchen.
Rebuilding after WWII, the UK standard was to run a single ring circuit for each floor of the home. They ran as few household circuits as possible, because they needed the copper.
If you look at the amperage/wattage ratings of UK circuits, they are considerably higher than other 220v/240v countries, because their circuits are intended to be shared among many more devices.
You know how they warn you not to plug in too many devices into a single circuit? The UK electrical system took the exact opposite approach, because they needed to. This is why they have a fancy plug that nobody else in the world uses: it is an essential safety component that serves the same purpose that the household circuit breaker performs for the rest of the world.