WI/AHC: United States uses 230V AC?

Pretty much what it says on the tin. Suppose that instead of standardizing on 120V for end-user power distribution, the United States standardizes on 230V, much like Eurasia?
 
I'm no expert, but isn't the really crucial deal the AC frequency - 60Hz vs 50Hz? Which knocks on to film frames per second (30 vs 25 fps respectively) and further to TV standards (NTSC vs PAL and SECAM). Hollywood is NOT going to want to switch from 120V and 60Hz in a hurry, is it?
 
If the US had originally adopted 220-230 V AC, the result is that the whole world could end up using something that looks like the Danish 107-2-D1 connector, essentially the Europlug connector with a ground wire that looks like this:

189px-107-2-D1_-_Danish_electrical_plugs_-_Studio_2011.jpg
 
Just so our Euro and Asian friends know US residences are supplied with 220-240 volt current. At the entry control pannel, where the safety breakers are, it is split with a 110-120 volt leg for most circuts. Where 220 is required, for heating/cooling units, clothing dryers, electric cooking stoves, a 220 line is run. However as I understand it the Hz varies from what is required by Euro standard 220 volt appliances, so correct function cannot be expected.
 
Just so our Euro and Asian friends know US residences are supplied with 220-240 volt current. At the entry control pannel, where the safety breakers are, it is split with a 110-120 volt leg for most circuts. Where 220 is required, for heating/cooling units, clothing dryers, electric cooking stoves, a 220 line is run. However as I understand it the Hz varies from what is required by Euro standard 220 volt appliances, so correct function cannot be expected.

Yes, in the polyphase system used in the US, 220 is the high voltage. In Europe, the high voltage is 400V, and the low one is 220V. 400V is used by stoves and the like. The system is fundamentally exactly the same, only half the voltage in the US.

For both "lower-tech" appliances, as in vacuum cleaners, and for higher tech ones with active power supplies and computer chips, the frequency difference is not very significant. It's the middle ground that suffers -- like old analog TVs. Since this area is being eaten by things with chips in them, eventually it won't matter.
 
Yes, in the polyphase system used in the US, 220 is the high voltage. In Europe, the high voltage is 400V, and the low one is 220V. 400V is used by stoves and the like. The system is fundamentally exactly the same, only half the voltage in the US.

You can have 440 supplied in the US, if you want to pay the extra cost of the industrial grade supply equipment. One of my customers lived in a building formerly used by a doctor. 440 was supplied to the building to run the old 1960s era X Ray equipment. The only other case I ran across of 440 in a urban residnece was where the home owner had some industrial grade welding equipment in his garage. On rural farms the grain dryers, ect.. run more efficiently on 440 volt current.
 
I'm no expert, but isn't the really crucial deal the AC frequency - 60Hz vs 50Hz? Which knocks on to film frames per second (30 vs 25 fps respectively) and further to TV standards (NTSC vs PAL and SECAM).

Strictly speaking, those three are colour carriers, not line standards. For example, most of the Americas uses System M (which is 525-line, with 483 active lines), but whilst most countries use the NTSC colour standard with System M, Brazil uses PAL in conjunction with System M and historically Vietnam (and a few other countries, including Venezuela for a while in the early 1980s) used SECAM in conjunction with System M. So the colour carrier is not the problem - the key factor is the line standards, and not all line standards are created equal.
 
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