Question

[Pootnaigle]

I have always wondered why there are so many distribution voltages so close to one another?Seems to me that the transformer manifacturers hafta make so many different variations of thier pots it wud run up the costs. Theres 12470. 13.2 3.8 ETC ETC ANY BODY WANNA VENTURE A GUESS?

[reppy007]

Ill take a shot.....maybe way back when....when they built the substation transformers,they built them too good.....they obviously last forever,so they needed dist.transformers that were compatabile with the lower voltage they put out......hell Poot ,I dont know...great question....I wonder what substation transformer is the oldest....or what is the normal life of one of those things .....30.........40.........50.....60 years?

[reppy007]

Second shot at it ....maybe some inside genius just wanted to show that there was more than one way to build these....I mean if he built only one type,he could be working his-self out of a job....maybe he wanted to be God...to create a varity of things instead of one thats the same.....hundreds of different types of dogs....fish...people...planets...solar systems...the list goes on .:D

[Rob]

Second shot at it ....maybe some inside genius just wanted to show that there was more than one way to build these....I mean if he built only one type,he could be working his-self out of a job....maybe he wanted to be God...to create a varity of things instead of one thats the same.....hundreds of different types of dogs....fish...people...planets...solar systems...the list goes on .:D

You growing your own stuff Bro?

[reppy007]

You growing your own stuff Bro?

I did get a little deep...:D.....far -out - bro :D

[thrasher]

When electrical systems were first being built they were all stand alone (no ties to anyone else's system) and every engineer specified what he thought was best. Then you also have the government getting into the question in the late 1930's when Washington engineers wrote the first Rural Electrification Agency Standards and they choose 12.5/7.2 kv to be "standard distribution voltage". Later they added 25/14.4 kv and 34.5/19.9 kv as standards.
I understand there was/is a Municipal association that originally picked 4160/2400 as the standard, don't know for sure.
Anyway once you have a couple of million sunk in one voltage you don't feel much like changing.