Electricity Around the World -- Your Questions Answered

It wasn't until the advent of the internet and the rise of economies with enough disposable income to cover international shipping, that electrical disparities around the world became the problem of the everyday person. Now we know that if you buy a product from an overseas website, you'll also need a voltage and power connector adaptor to make it work in your home country. Only in the last few years have manufacturers started creating products like multisystem LCD televisions that can actually work on either 110 or 220-240 volts, and work with a variety of different input formats. We take a quick look at the big issues with electricity around the world.

Most of Europe, Australia, Greenland, and some parts of South America run on 220-240V mains electricity, and 50Hz. Some parts of South America run on the same voltage, but 60Hz frequency. North America, India and Japan all run on 100-127v power and either 50 or 60Hz frequency.

If you buy an appliance from a region that uses 60Hz power, in many cases it will be unsafe to use at 50Hz power. Heat transformers and electric motors don’t deal with the change in frequency very well. Some items it will not matter to - but if you don’t want to do a $1000 electrical experiment, you're better off buying an appliance that is designed to run on either frequency, like a multisystem LCD television. The different frequencies came about because German engineers thought 50Hz was a neater number more in keeping with the metric system, although 60Hz is ideal for transmission efficiency.

Apparently, there is no real reason other than a need to be individual that causes countries to develop their own plug types! Multisystem LCD televisions and other appliances that are designed to work worldwide will often come with a selection of different cords or adapters. When you look at the proliferation of plug types, it is hard to understand why countries chose to do this - it may well change in the distant future.