Why choose 120 volts?

Brian Raaen braaen at zcorum.com
Wed May 27 12:22:46 UTC 2009


As a Holder of two different FCC licenses I can tell you voltage is not
what kills, it is amps and location that kill. Actually in certain cases
as long at you have good electrical isolation, high enough dielectric
breakdown voltage, and good grounding higher voltages can be safer and
more efficient. Also, Thomas Edison was the one that discovered that
trying to deliver DC more than a few feet was not a good idea.

-- 
-----------------
Brian Raaen
Network Engineer
email: /braaen at zcorum.com/ <mailto:braaen at zcorum.com>
FCC GROL (General Radiotelephone Operators License)
FCC Amateur Extra Class KG4CXN (Also certified volunteer examiner with
CAVAC and ARRL)

Alex H. Ryu wrote:
> Also, adding followings.
>
> 5) availability from local power provider(s)
>
> 6) local regulation such as fire department safety rules...
>
> 7) for your own safety... (120V may not kill people, but 240V can do...)
>
>
> If you want better, why not just have everything to DC power ?
> Something like 48V...
>
> Alex
>
>
> Wayne E. Bouchard wrote:
>   
>> 1) Equipment used to not be dual voltage
>>
>> 2) For smaller scale, 120V UPS and distribution equipment is usually
>> cheaper
>>
>> 3) 120V embedded itself into operations as a result.
>>
>> 4) We're all lazy and hate change.
>>
>> On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 12:39:10PM -0700, Seth Mattinen wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> I have a pure curiosity question for the NANOG crowd here. If you run
>>> your facility/datacenter/cage/rack on 120 volts, why?
>>>
>>> I've been running my facility at 208 for years because I can get away
>>> with lower amperage circuits. I'm curious about the reasons for using
>>> high-amp 120 volt circuits to drive racks of equipment instead of
>>> low-amp 208 or 240 volt circuits.
>>>
>>> ~Seth
>>>     
>>>       
>> ---
>> Wayne Bouchard
>> web at typo.org
>> Network Dude
>> http://www.typo.org/~web/
>>
>>
>>
>>   
>>     
>
>
>   
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