Sorry to still be off topic folks.
On Tue, 6 Apr 1999, Riley Williams wrote:
> Hi Geoff.
>
> >> Here in the UK, mains is 240V nominal, and I'd prefer it to work
> >> on that, but also have a facility for running from a standard car
> >> battery.
>
> > Just a small point - and WAY off topic, but the nominal mains
> > voltage in the UK and the rest of the EC is 230V - the EC was
> > "harmonized" (IIRC) on 1st Jan 1998 with the UK and Eire moving
> > down to 230v, the rest of the EC up to 230V. However, the
> > current allowable tolerances (-6 +10%) made the move pretty
> > meaningless. Even the frequency that used to be 50 +/-0.1Hz has
> > been widened to +/-0.5Hz.
>
> > Such is privatisation.
>
> Actually, things aren't that simple. As far as UK law is concerned,
> the "Electricity Regulations" still require equipment to be designed
> for a mains voltage specification of "nominally 240 volts, with a
> tolerance range of -6.2% to +9.7%", and that's a direct quote...
>
> Best wishes from Riley.
Hi Riley,
If the "Electricity Regulations" you quote are the 1989 version, although
(to the best of my knowledge), they are still current, they are also out
of date.
The Electricity Supply Industry is regulated by the "Office of the
Electricity Regulator" and the figure of nomimally 230V -6+/10% was a
direct quote from that office.
The range of supply is the important figure - most designers worth their
salt would design for a *much* wider input range (since when have you
seen equipment switchable between 220-240V). Increasingly, equipment has
an allowable input voltage of nominally 100V-240V without adjustment.
If you delve deep enough in the mountain of paper over Westminster and
Whitehall, you will no doubt find a civil servant working on a current
specification for the "Red Flag".
(For non UK readers, Whitehall is the seat of the UK Government and
Westminster, the home of the politicians who think that they control it.
The "Red Flag" was required to be carried by a man walking in front of a
motor car to warn the public of its approach! I can think of no parallel
to the red Flag in Linux but I can in ham radio - it is call Morse Code!)
Sorry again folks to be so widely off topic, I did manage to get a
mention of both Linux and ham radio in the last paragraph......:-)
Geoff
--
Geoff Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] linux 2.0.36
Chelmsford [EMAIL PROTECTED] sparc - i586
Intel create faster processors - Microsoft create slower processes
