Here's a quick question for ya.

Are the Electrical Systems in the USA and Canada identical?

I'm asking because I live in the USA and was wondering what would happen if I imported an electrical appliance (such as a video game system) from Canada and tried plugging it in to my USA Electrical Wall Plug...

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If your nose runs and your feet smell, you could be upside down! O_o
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There was a man who entered a local paper's pun contest. He sent in
ten different puns, in the hope that at least one of the puns would win.
Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

You'd actually bring down the entire electrical systems of Canada, the US, and the entire free world.

So DON'T DO IT!!!

Just kidding - we're both on 115V/60Hz. Knock your socks off (preferrably not via electrocution, though...).

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Just check the prongs for mapel syrup before you plug it in, don't wanna short out your circuts. And if it's a dreamcast, the splashscrean will say "Eh'ga!" instead of "Sega!" :-D

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Canada and the USA are in the same voltage and frequency range.

Wiki link

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Scienara: A rejection of reason and evidence.

Get yourself a photovoltaic panel and stop
worrying

Thanks for the info, links and jokes guys!


The Sega Genesis (Model 1) that my Uncle gave me as a gift has died.
As I was searching the web for a replacement, I came across This Website.
They sell a (Model 2) Genesis that is pre-modded with RCA Stereo and S-Video outputs for about $100 USD.

They're based in Canada, and that's why I was wondering about the electricity.

I realize that I can probably get a non-modified used Genesis locally for about ten bucks, but I'd really like to finally have S-Video and not have to mess with the audio patch cable when connecting it to my (Model 2) Sega CD.

Besides, when I told my Uncle about that website, he said that he's gonna buy one for me, and get one for himself.

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If your nose runs and your feet smell, you could be upside down! O_o
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There was a man who entered a local paper's pun contest. He sent in
ten different puns, in the hope that at least one of the puns would win.
Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

Now that's an uncle!

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Although it doesn't affect the voltages the OP will be encountering, Candians are big on a 600Y/347V 4-wire system, using it about like we use 480V, and they do use the 347V for lighting just like we use 277V. I noticed that many of the device manufacturers, Leviton I remember, are rating their commercial and industrial grade stuff for 347V, so the stuff will be standarized all over.

In the US, you will occasionally see some 600V systems, but they will usually be 3-wire deltas. Going to 600V would suit me fine, that's the standard insulation working rating (save for a few things which are 300V only, mainly "SJ" class drop cord). (Breakers however, do get a wee bit expensive for full 600V rating, though; as interrupting ratings get high, they cost about their weight in gold) Get the mostest power for the max current.

-Richard

Inexperienced folks ask me for electrical advice quite often. I tell them two things.

1) Pay your bill
2) Don't mess with it

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Scienara: A rejection of reason and evidence.

Cliff's notes: "Hold this wire and tell me if you feel anything, will yah?"

Our electrical grids are also connected, and the last major blackout started in a generating station in Ohio, which knocked out Toronto and other major cities

I'm not positive, but I think the big New York blackout a long time ago started in Canada (I'm not sure about that one, though)

Some electrical energy in New York state is generated in Quebec (same as Ontario)

Pete

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PJE

There's so much I don't know about astrophysics. I wish I had read that book by that wheelchair guy.

Peter,

"The Great Northeastern Blackout" ('67? or sometime in there) is a long, long story. It started out due to errant trip of a mis-set breaker on one transmission line between here and Canada, or close to it. It actually caused a rethinking and revolution in grid control ideas. How that one little failure led to a cascade, which led to violent "swinging" of major generation and the first hand accounts of the "pucker factor" of generation operations watching those huge synchronous machine start "jumping" as the swing went out of control is quite a tale to read.

Now, the last major "northeastern blackout" was (near as can be figured) caused by a local operator playing fast and loose, letting a system get well outside where it was supposed to be.

The control system functioned as it was supposed to. Only problem is it couldn't "save the system", and had to shut it down (and that's because the local operator was playing fast and loose). Had it not acted, swing would've become violent, with huge chunks of energy "swinging" back and forthe between generation. The system, just as it was designed prevented the violent swinging that happened the first time. And it was some quick thinking by some local operators at major "intersections" that prevented that little "hiccup" from spreading.

A local buddy of mine confirmed that Duke Power locally saw a whopping change on the roder of ~0.1Hz during that period. 0.1Hz, that's nothing you say. But when consider the total "inertia" of all the generation on the grid, both mechanical and electrical, that 0.1Hz speed variation is a major tsunami on the grid. It was quite an event.

Some nuclear plant had to "blow off steam". You don't stop that massive head of steam feeding a turbine on a dime and they had to blow off.

-Richard

I'm remembering some more details about the first big blackout. One thing they learned the hard way was having fault tolerant communication. As it was communication between operators was dependent on the grid itself. So, a lot of operators were on their own, with no idea of what was happenning, and no way to coordinate any response.

Indeed, it could've set off WWIII. Had the military not had its own, very reliable backup power and communication systems, panic could've set in. There was a rumor that it was due to Russian sabotage in preparation for an attack that spread. Now, when stuff like that gets started, and you are on your own locally with no communication with high-command, it gets dangerous.

Another problem was "self-starting". Many plants needed power to start up to make power, and there was no coordinated plan about the proper "spin up" from a complete offline state. Now, they've got those procedures in place. Basically, all load is disconnected. Self-starting plants (number of which is known and designed for) start themselves up. They then energize and synchronize major transmission arteries, and non-starting plants then have power to start. Generation will smoothly "spin up".

Now, once you've got enough "muscle" spun up, you start re-energizing load. Doing this over a nation-wide area is not a trivial thing. You need a detailed plan of operation.

All that was a result of that big blackout.

As an example of the self-starting chaos, there was one area that could not get anything restarted. Supposedly there was an old plant somewhere that wasn't really "on duty", but a local guy realized he could jury rig something to get started. The tale is they went out in the parking lots and got all the 12V batteries they could find, and jury rigged a DC exciter bus power source to get things started.

-Richard

This is where hydropower shines in the overall picture. Our capability to 'black start' an entire grid. After Rita blew through and distribution lines were repaired, we islanded ourselves to small loads at the local hospital, police, emergency ops, etc. and completed a system restoration in short order.

Even a small local grid is complicated, trying to coordinate the entire nation would be a nightmare.

Whatever it takes, right?

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Scienara: A rejection of reason and evidence.

I wish I could rememeber exactly where this was, and when. I think it was in the 70s, maybe Tenn. or close. Anyway, some local grid got in trouble by trying to help out a small neighbor. They ended up pulled loose from the rest of the grid and had lost frequency due to heavy load, down to 58Hz or something like that.

They were in a mess, and could not speed up. The original problem was fixed, but since they were so slow, they couldn't sync back up. They desparately didn't want to drop load, and so they sweet talked another neighbor into disconnecting themselves, slowing down intentionally, and syncing up. The two of them together then had enough muscle to speed back up to 60Hz and resync to everybody else. That was one delicate operation.

-Richard

And everyone wondered why their clocks were slow!

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