pleroma.debian.social

Why can't MAGA people be angry that the US has *weak* power outlets and why can't they all get mad about it and switch the country to 220v? Seems very unpatriotic that European power outlets and Chinese Power outlets have twice the voltage.

Why couldn't they just get fixated on that issue and forget the rest?

@futurebird It's only a step on the way to kilovolt mains power as God and Tesla intended.
(Tesla almost certainly didn't intend this but he's dead and can't argue.)

@omatto.bsky.social

please don't mess with me. I'm very brittle and someone could get hurt if I snap

@futurebird I'm genuinely baffled at the US electrical setup. It must take forever to boil a kettle for a cup of tea.

@davep

Two min and 30 seconds. It's not "unacceptable" but, if you are aware of the many other options it can feel unacceptable.

Though, I don't care about how long it takes as much as the options available on kettles. Specifically? I want a bottom-filler.

@futurebird @davep

Do microwaves use the wimpy outlet too?

@Tallish_Tom @davep

Most do!

Though it's possible to get a special outlet and some microwaves require it. I'm thinking what I may need is one of those outlets for my ideal kettle set-up. Which will mean hiring an electrician.

@davep @futurebird Electric kettles are extremely rare in the US. If you want to boil water, you use the microwave or put it in a kettle on the stove. The electric stoves, washers, dryers, and some other appliances that I can't see the back of do use a 220v outlet that looks like this:

@trebach @davep

"if you want to boil water, you use the microwave"

I know people do this, but please just use the stove. PLEASE.

@futurebird There would be electrocuted Americans scattered across the landscape like used matches.

@Gustodon

Has something like that ever stopped them before?

@RogerBW @futurebird Tesla wanted wireless power delivery.

@mansr @futurebird But, apart from the ecological effects, there was no way to get paid for it.

@futurebird
Hate to tell you this, but virtually every home in North America has 220v service - for the electric stove, or in the garage otherwise - you know, that big switch box ...

@wordstitcher

Why do we step it down???

@futurebird we all know that maga people are ineffective; the tyranny of the installed base is too powerful against even effective people.

@futurebird the awesomeness of a 2 kW tea kettle and a 4 kW vacuum cleaner cannot be overestimated.

(now in JapanI have 4 kW service, and when I make tea it smells like burning plastic)

@futurebird @wordstitcher it's not stepped down, you take two 110v and do unholy things! https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/336987

@futurebird @cstross Make them angry about how the USA won a whole war of independence against the British but then still had to use King George’s system of weights and measures. Beta cuck move, show strength by converting to metric like every other country seems to have managed.

@futurebird @cstross one problem is that they probably wouldn’t switch to 220 like the metrosexual communists in Paris use but go for an insensibly higher voltage just to own the libs. Quite possibly chosen for numerological reasons, like 1488V or 4547V

@acb @futurebird I think three-phase 440VAC is fine for domestic appliances, don't you?

Preferably delivered over USB-C cables.

@cstross @acb

That sounds beautiful and nothing could go wrong.

@futurebird @acb Parenthetically, the EU is moving—although they haven't noticed yet—to a triple standard: 100W over USB-C negotiated via PD for smaller stuff, 220VAC for domestic appliances over 100W (microwaves, stoves, washing machines, etc), and probably a de-facto industry standard for car chargers. The USB-C stuff is very real, comes into force by law next Tuesday.

@acb @futurebird @cstross

I think they should go for 256 V at 64 Hz to make calculations easier (albeit in binary)

Or whatever voltage but at 55Hz so mains electricity has a nice harmonious hum exactly 3 octaves below concert A.

@petealexharris @acb @futurebird

They should also de-decimalize their currency! Everybody uses base 10 or base 100, why not be unique?

I'd recommend a three-tier system of cents/dollars/trumps, denominated at 11 cents to the dime, 13 dimes to the dollar, and 541 dollars to the trump.

These are all prime ratios! Prime real estate! The biggest, best currency system! Makes calculating rent and depreciation and compound interest really easy!

@futurebird the thing is for most stuff we don’t need 200v and it is more dangerous than 120. I think we could get away with 240 in the kitchens where it matters and 120 pretty much everywhere else (also your house is probably already 240, so putting in a 240 outlet is usually as simple as running a new circuit)

@lampsofgold @futurebird

the thing is for most stuff we don’t need 200v and it is more dangerous than 120

The thing I remember from school: It’s the volts that jolts, but the mills that kills. We were taught that 120 V is less safe because you need to run more current to get the same power, which increases the danger of death. Is this not true?

@NewtonMark @futurebird @cstross feels like the correct answer here is to invent a whole new system of measurement to put those woke euros in their place

@dotstdy @NewtonMark @futurebird You know that pre-revolutionary France ran on an imperial system where the definition of "foot" was "the distance from the king's nose to the tip of his right index finger with arm outstretched", so that it changed whenever they got a new king? (Which was quite often, before indoor plumbing and the germ theory of disease.)

@cstross @futurebird @acb just think how fast a kettle plugged into a car charger could boil a cup of water...

@futurebird Never really thought about that. Personally, I'd be more motivated to make the switch to metric before dealing with that. I'm ready for metric now!

@futurebird Please escuse me if i totally miss something that is not literally written here, but in the USa there is very easily 240V available, people just need to install NEMA6 or NEMA14 sockets

@Laberpferd

Yeah I might do that.

@cstross @dotstdy @futurebird Horses suddenly seeming bigger for four years when they’re measured by reference to Trump’s tiny hands.

@cstross @dotstdy @NewtonMark @futurebird Any source for that claim (about measurement systems in France before the metric system)?

@tml @dotstdy @NewtonMark @futurebird Here's some: TLDR is, it was a mess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_metric_system#Preamble

@omatto.bsky.social You need Universal Health Care - every animal in Australia is specifically tailored to murder you dead if you look at it funny.

@futurebird

The UK has 240 v at 13A for mains, however, having stuied electrical engineering at college, (granted sometime ago) it is te current that is dangerous, not the voltage.

Hence we have 3 pin plugs, (earth pin) fuses in the plugs and now RCD devices in place of a metal fuse box, they will cut the circuit instantly a problem occurs.

What would it take to upgrade the entire US infrastructure to 220/240 volts ?

@highvoltage @futurebird

Yes, we have both electrical socket circuits, lighting and ovens etc are connected via a switch in the kitchen, and that runs at 30A.

@cstross @acb @futurebird
On other social media I've seen Brits who believe we USians don't use electric kettles because our voltage is so low the water would never heat in any reasonable amount of time.

Of course there real reason is that the British used to heat their kettles on the hob, and "Old Hob" is of course The Devil. So, being a religiously devout people, we took to shunning anything tea-related in perpetuity.

@PTR_K @cstross @acb

"On other social media I've seen Brits who believe we USians don't use electric kettles because our voltage is so low the water would never heat in any reasonable amount of time."

I kinda think this is true even though I know it's not and I'm from the US. LOL.

@lampsofgold @futurebird Sure, 240 V might kill you slightly faster than 120 V will, but both are dangerous enough that the same precautions are needed. That's a weak argument. Moreover, having dual power systems would be impractical and quite possibly even more dangerous when people inevitably find ways of connecting things to the wrong supply.

@mansr @lampsofgold @futurebird
Fun fact: we have two in Japan... 100V for most things, but 200V for AC in larger rooms. Sometimes there's also a 200V outlet in the kitchen but it's unusual.

@jannem @mansr @lampsofgold @futurebird the US is similar, service is 240 (or 208) and either 240 (208) or 120 is used as needed. eg My oven, cooktop, and drier are 240. ACs also get their own 240 outlets. But it’s a shame things like microwaves and electric kettles adopted 120 instead of 240. Having even one 240 receptacle in the kitchen so I could boil water instantly would make too much sense.

@alec @jannem @lampsofgold @futurebird The American 240 V is produced by a split phase where each side is 120 V to neutral/ground. In Europe, high-power devices (washing machines and bigger) may use a 3-phase supply with 400 V between phases.

@mansr @jannem @lampsofgold @futurebird if I wanted to live super dangerously, I could take advantage of the fact that adjacent kitchen outlets are by rule on separate circuits here, consequently very likely on opposite legs of the split-phase, and create a dual-plug adapter to a 240V kettle.

@alec @mansr @jannem @lampsofgold

I am working hard to forget that I read this. This is not something that is safe for me to know. uhhh this must not be true. Yes. yes. It's NOT true. Goodbye.

@futurebird someone did a whole empirical study of 220V, vs 110v vs gas stove vs electric stove vs microwave - on youtube - a couple years ago. IIRC, 220v won in most categories measured.

i think it's here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c

@sk76 @futurebird American here with an electric kettle. Although I spent a semester in England in the 1980s and can personally attest to the superiority of 220v.

Do you still need to purchase your electrical plugs separately? I bought a desk lamp & was baffled when my friends said, “Don’t forget to buy the plug!” I thought they were joking.

@alwirtes @sk76 @futurebird I think that plugs now come as standard with everything, and with things like kettles they’re plugs that can’t easily be replaced. Unless you cut the cable.

@alwirtes @sk76 @futurebird This is a bit annoying because being able to rewire a plug was something I was taught to do when I was 10 and, it seemed, was constantly doing to help my parents and grandparents out. Now it’s an entirely useless skill.

@Nickiquote @alwirtes @futurebird haha, I never did it often enough to become skilled...

I remember separate plugs still being required in the late 1990s (but maybe not for more expensive items), but within a few years they were mostly not a thing anymore.

@sk76 @Nickiquote @futurebird Why did they not include plugs in the first place? Was it because the plugs, themselves, weren’t standardized?

@alwirtes @sk76 @futurebird Older houses might well have still had the rounded 3-pin sockets that were replaced by the new standard in 1947. I remember seeing those in relative’s houses.

@dotstdy @NewtonMark @futurebird @cstross The US actually did. The ship carrying the Metric System stuff sank on its way there, but the ideas behind it started to take hold. So it was all still pounds and inches, but ended up with stuff like "A pint is exactly one pound of water" and that's why volumes are given in fluid ounces.

The US does not use Imperial measurements: it uses American Standard measurements. They were a mild improvement.

@spacehobo @dotstdy @NewtonMark @futurebird The US does in fact use imperial units, they just renamed them. It's cultural apropriation in action! (Also, stupid.)