There is a lot of misinformation (generally, I mean, not on this forum) about this topic.
1. The common 230V is a legal fiction to allow free movement of goods within the CE marking area. It's a political voltage, not an engineering one. 2. UK mains is therefore nominally 230V, but it happens to be on the high side, and is the same 240V it always has been. 3. Mainland Europe mains is also nominally 230V, but it happens to be on the low side, and is the same 220V it always has been. 4. There is no big handle that anybody can turn to crank the voltage up or down. The power stations and intermediate transformers etc were not designed with such adjustment in mind. No process of meeting in the middle is going to happen any time soon. 5. That said, there is some benefit to continental voltage going up to a "real" 230V, because for a given power consumption, it would mean less current, reducing losses and/or increasing grid capacity, and it is therefore at least under consideration. The contrary effect would arise if done in the UK and, since it is not required for any CE marking reason, would have no obvious merit. 6. CE marked equipment has to be safe across the voltage range it may see in Europe. Its performance, particularly for heating and lighting appliances, may of course vary between UK and mainland Europe, but that's the price you have to pay for a common market. John C -----Original Message----- From: John Woodgate [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 20 March 2012 17:37 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] Mains voltage in Europe In message <020D0D79F6644B7F84CFED34C7D38DBF@Pete97219Compaq>, dated Tue, 20 Mar 2012, Pete Perkins <[email protected]> writes: > As an outsider my recollection is that the decision to move from >220V in Continental Europe and 240V in the UK was enthusiastically >voted in. Not by Britain; we resisted for several years before a certain government official capitulated. > > > The implementatin was scheduled to be a one volt change per year >with both partine coming together after 10 years with a harmonized 220V >everywhere. That simply isn't practicable and I don't see any reason to do it. > > The Continental Europeean change seemed to proceed smoothly. I >don't know of any issues. The UK change seemed in trouble from the >beginning; uncertainty reigned. After a couple of years the UK gave up >trying and abandoned the agreement to change the voltage. > > So now the Euro voltage is 230V everywhere except in the UK >which is >still 240V. Well, it's within 230 V +10 % most of the time in most places, but only a relatively few supplies were actually reduced: these were supplies to long rural feeders, where the voltage near the substation was high. > I don't think there is any chance of the tolerance going back to +/-6%. It would be expensive and probably not bring any significant advantages. -- OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK If 'QWERTY' is an English keyboard, what language is 'WYSIWYG' for? - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]> - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
