Traveling without it, you'll be dumbfounded when you enter the hotel!
Have you ever had such an experience: before going abroad, you only focused on making travel plans, exchanging foreign currency, and then confirming that you have brought essential items such as mobile phones and cameras, and then you set off abroad with peace of mind. But when you arrive at the hotel room abroad, you suddenly find that... the sockets in foreign countries seem to be a little different... Some countries' sockets are marked with 220V instead of 110V like the sockets in the United States...
Could it be that voltage also has national boundaries and is different in each country? So, is 110 volts a characteristic of the United States? Don't worry, I'll take you to expand your knowledge. Let's first look at the voltage situation of domestic electricity in various countries.
110V:
Only in Japan and North Korea (only 2 countries).
110V - 130V:
In the United States, Canada, Panama, Cuba, Lebanon, Mexico and other countries and Taiwan, China (about 30 countries and regions).
220V - 230V:
In the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, Singapore, Hong Kong (200V), Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Thailand, Norway, Singapore, India, New Zealand, Australia (about 120 countries).
(Of course, among the countries that adopt 220 - 230 volts, there are also cases where 110 - 130 volts are used in parallel according to regional needs, such as Sweden and Russia.)
Why is the voltage standard for household electricity in my country 110V, while in some foreign countries it is 220V (in China)?
110V voltage
In the early days of electricity application, Edison's power company in the United States used 110V as the standard to supply power to customers, and it supplied direct current. Later, the alternating voltage was initially 3-phase 240V. For safety reasons, the voltage was reduced to 110V. So to use electricity in China, you must have something to convert the voltage, that is, a power transformer.
220V alternating current
The 220V alternating current originated in Europe. After the commercial success of alternating current, the alternating current market in Europe also gradually heated up and developed slowly. However, it was found that the loss of using 220V alternating current is smaller than that of 110V, so the 220V standard was adopted. China's 220V standard is in accordance with the Soviet standard at that time, and the Soviet Union used the European standard at that time.
Is there any reason for setting the voltage to 220V or 110V? Is a lower voltage safer?
In principle, the lower the voltage, the higher the safety. Someone has calculated that in terms of the time required to cause pathophysiological reactions or even fatal harm to the human body, 110V does take longer than 220V, with a difference of about 100 milliseconds... But in fact, both 110V and 220V are far beyond the range of safe voltage. In addition, when getting an electric shock, what really determines the safety is the magnitude of the current passing through, so whether there is danger depends more on the electric shock environment.
Smart friends may have already thought that since the voltages in different countries (regions) are different, the corresponding power plug standards are naturally also different. Therefore, for friends with overseas travel plans, it is very important to prepare a travel adapter plug, which is absolutely convenient and worry-free.
A little popular science about power plugs/sockets in various countries
At present, there are different standards for plugs and sockets in the world, including Chinese standard, American standard, European standard, British standard and South African standard. The specific details are as follows:
National standard
- Used in: China, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina.
- Characteristics: Three flat pins.
American standard
- Used in: The United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand and other countries and Taiwan, China.
- Characteristics: One round pin and two flat pins.
British standard
- Used in: Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Maldives, Qatar and other countries and regions.
- Characteristics: Three square pins.
European standard (German standard)
- Used in: EU countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, as well as South Korea, Russia and other countries.
- Characteristics: Two round pins.
South African standard
- Used in: South Africa, India, Russia.
- Characteristics: Three round pins.
In addition, there are also Italian standard (Italian standard) plugs, Swiss standard (Swiss standard) plugs, etc. There are also cases where multiple standards are used in the same country or region for overseas travel adapter plugs.
The following are typical representatives of various national standard socket types. Please find the corresponding ones by yourself:
Alright, I've prepared all the strategies for you. Don't forget about electrical safety when traveling during holidays~