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The US electrical system is not 120V

Timbo2

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Clickbait and a waste of time obviously.

I've watched some of his other videos. If you understand the way the grid works it's nothing new. But his videos aren't what I would call "click-bait". He takes technology and explains it in conversational way to people that may not be EEs.
 

Timbo2

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The UK grid is 3-phase. An installation can be supplied with a single phase or all three depending on power requirements.

You can get three phases in the US too, usually only done at commercial installations. Standard residential is split phase.
 

mansr

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I've watched some of his other videos. If you understand the way the grid works it's nothing new. But his videos aren't what I would call "click-bait". He takes technology and explains it in conversational way to people that may not be EEs.
The title of that video is misleading. The US grid is 120 Vrms between live and neutral/ground. If an unqualified single voltage is given when discussing the electricity grid, that's what it refers to, never anything else. Because of the low voltage, high-power devices are sometimes supplied with split phase to halve the current demand. Civilised countries use a higher per-phase voltage and three-phase supply for really demanding loads.
 

mansr

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How is it 680V? I'm clearly missing some understanding of this.
240 V is the root-mean-square (RMS) voltage. The peaks are ±sqrt(2) times the RMS value, so the peak-to-peak voltage is 2 * sqrt(2) * 240 = 678.82 V.
 
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raindance

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240 V is the root-mean-square (RMS) voltage. The peaks are ±sqrt(2) times the RMS value, so the peak-to-peak voltage is 2 * sqrt(2) * 240 = 278.82 V.

Your calculator is broken.
 

Timbo2

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The title of that video is misleading. The US grid is 120 Vrms between live and neutral/ground. If an unqualified single voltage is given when discussing the electricity grid, that's what it refers to, never anything else. Because of the low voltage, high-power devices are sometimes supplied with split phase to halve the current demand. Civilised countries use a higher per-phase voltage and three-phase supply for really demanding loads.

He's trying to explain that residences in the US have the ability to get more than 120V. Many people that don't live here weren't aware of that. Standard residential services is split phase 200A. In the "Mc Mansions" it's not uncommon to have two panels and 400A.
 
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