Post #2715774

Why does the US use 480 volts for three-phase (industrial) electrical supplies? I can’t imagine the extra 100 volts over 380 is worth the tradeoff in terms of now needing transformers for all the smaller loads you would be able to buy relatively standard 230 volt equipment for (control logic, lighting, etc etc). Instead they apparently use transformers to convert the 277 to 110 and sometimes even 230? What’s the historical reason? I’m not judging, I’m just curious!