The middle aged thread

Yeah, my old man's an electrical engineer but since everyone knows what I'm talking about and "240v" is quicker to type than "standard wall sockets in the UK" I'll keep referring to everything that comes out of the wall as 240V (unless I'm specifically laughing at the US).

To be a pedant, pretty much nowhere in the developed world uses 240V now.

Eh? 220, is it?

Where?

Australasia (except WA) & most of Europe is 230V
Other bits of Europe and most of Asia is 220

Nearly all of the americas (north, central and south) are 120V

(In reality the standards are all +/- such a big tolerance that you might actually be getting as low as 215 or as high as 250V on a particular phase at a particular time, and all modern power supplies will run happily anywhere in this range, as I say this is pure pedantry)

AFAIK, Oz is supposed to be nominally 240V. I've seen 250V embossed on the odd old thing, and perhaps even 230V a couple of times, but it's 240V here,+/- around 5V any time I've tested it.

110 in Cairns, nominally, and given the wall socket struggled to charge my phone I suspect a lot less.

110 in Cairns

WTAF

This does not compute in the slightest.

Until this claim I was 100% certain we had uniform national standards for one, but then there's the fact my old man lived there for 15-20 years so I've been there a bunch of times, yet never got wind of it.

???

...Yeah nah, you've gotta be tripping. There's no way.

Japan is a different 120v than the states ;)

Now there was a horror film that explained variation in volts as aliens, evil ones

All of Aussie is on the same 230v ish standard, including WA and FNQ. I think 230 was a new standard but WA and maybe qld still run at a nominal 240v.

What could be more middle aged than having a discussion global domestic voltages?

Throw a bit of beer brewing chat and we've got a party

I guess Alec from Technology Connections is honorary middle aged

At least it is the right thread.

For something to keep me interested, learn new skills etc I’ve been making funny little instagram vids at the gym. Lots of the members seem to like them, someone, about 40ish, commented “love these, you’re my gym dad’….

In which case I genuinely don’t know what that hotel had done to the power supply.

He has the best dishwasher chat.

Okay, a hotel... That makes it about 5% less incredibly weird, but I still have so many questions. Wonder if they were colouring outside the lines, or if it was somehow legit?

Nobody can touch his dishwasher chat. Or Christmas light chat. Or heat pump chat. Or pinball machine chat. He's a god among nerds