Why the people other than India use the voltage source as 110 volts?

Question

people in India uses the the voltage source as 230v and 50hz ??? what are advantages and disadvantages in both the sources usage

Answer 1

Many countries use 220-240 volts as a standard for electrical service in that you can have more powerful electrical motors and easier transmission. The US began it's electrical service years ago with lower 110 volt supply since it was safer than 220 volts if you are accidentally shocked and it also did not burn out bulbs as fast. As other countries developed their systems, they had sorted out those problems. Actually, converting bulbs to run on DC volts (special "buttons" that s***w in under the base which convert AC current to DC)  makes them last many times longer than AC...albeit, somehwat dimmer. Or using a bulb designed for 220 volts in a 110 volt system.

http://members.misty.com/don/longlife.ht...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest-las...

One site had this answer...seems pretty correct.

"The penalty of leadership, champ. While inventors in many countries contributed to electric power technology, the U.S. was way out front in putting that technology to practical use. In the early days, lower voltages were the most practical for electric lights-- higher voltages burned out the bulbs. So the hundreds of power plants built in the U.S. prior to 1900 adopted 110 volts (or 115 or 120 volts) as their de facto standard.

Trouble was, power transmission at higher voltages was more efficient--you didn't have to use so much copper in the wires. By the time most European countries got around to making big time investments in electricity, the engineers had figured out how to make 220-volt bulbs that wouldn't burn out so fast. So, starting in Germany around the turn of the century, they adopted the 220-volt (or 230- or 240-volt) standard. But the U.S. stayed with 110 volts (today it's officially 120 volts) because we had such a big installed base of 110-volt equipment.

But don't worry that we're stuck with a technological dinosaur. Fact is, homes with standard 3-wire electrical service in most parts of the country get 240 volts. The three wires that come in from the street are 120 volts positive, zero volts (neutral), and 120 volts negative. (I know, this is alternating current, not DC, so we can't really say "120 volts positive," but don't bother me with details.)

Take the neutral and either of the other wires (the usual practice) and you've got 120 volts. But tap into your plus-120 and minus-120 and you'll get a 240-volt jolt, handy for energy-hungry appliances like air conditioners or electric stoves and clothes dryers. The telltale sign in the fusebox is a special double-width circuit breaker that straddles the plus-120 and minus-120 bus bars.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/th...