220 or 110 volts for amplifiers

[Daner]

heard somewhere from the internet that you can run your amplifier cooler if you use 220 volts instead of 110 volts?

 

[KulkieT]

Maybe you use fan...

 

[Beave]

If it's on the internet, it must be true.

 

[KulkieT]

Just remember to run 8g wire from 15 amps outlet ....like some devices reviews on the market

 

[NINaudio]

If it's on the internet, it must be true.

That's an Abe Lincoln quote, right?

 

[NINaudio]

To be fair, I know that computer power supplies are generally more efficient at 220 volts than at 110. I'm not sure if the same is true of power amplifiers or receivers though.

 

[PENG]

heard somewhere from the internet that you can run your amplifier cooler if you use 220 volts instead of 110 volts?

"cooler" could mean slightly, marginally, negligibly cooler. So yes, higher voltage typically would result in high efficiency in general, therefore "cooler" for a lot of devices that use electricity, but for audio power amplifiers, higher power supply voltage is for the transformer primary (the h.v. side) only. The secondary (l.v. side) voltage, where the amplifier is connected to, would be the same so the difference in terms of transformer efficiency would be very negligible as transformers are very efficient in general >>90% typically, to begin with.

 

[slipperybidness]

heard somewhere from the internet that you can run your amplifier cooler if you use 220 volts instead of 110 volts?

Indeed, 220V will be more efficient (i.e. less power loss) than 110V.

The reason is simple, the majority of power loss/less efficiency is due to the heat generated by the current draw.

Power = Volts x Current.

So when voltage goes up, the current goes down proportionally, assuming a constant power draw. Less current means less loss.

Consider that Voltage is a Potential Energy, so it should be quite obvious why a potential energy tends to have less energy loss.

 

[slipperybidness]

"cooler" could mean slightly, marginally, negligibly cooler. So yes, higher voltage typically would result in high efficiency in general, therefore "cooler" for a lot of devices that use electricity, but for audio power amplifiers, higher power supply voltage is for the transformer primary (the h.v. side) only. The secondary (l.v. side) voltage, where the amplifier is connected to, would be the same so the difference in terms of transformer efficiency would be very negligible as transformers are very efficient in general >>90% typically, to begin with.

Yeah, good point! When you apply this to the real world applications, the gains are likely marginal.

 

[PENG]

Yeah, good point! When you apply this to the real world applications, the gains are likely marginal.

Absolutely, for a 100 Wx2 power amp, it may make a difference of less than 1 deg C at rated output, just guessing..

 

[TLS Guy]

heard somewhere from the internet that you can run your amplifier cooler if you use 220 volts instead of 110 volts?

Basically this is nonsense. There will be less heating in the primary of the power transformer, as the current will be halved. The heat will be reduced by the square of that current. The heat and current in the secondary will be the same. Crucially the components that produce the bulk of the heat, especially the power transistors will make the same amount of heat. They are the ones most damaged by heat and produce most of the heat that damages other components like ICs especially processing chips.

So what you heard is essentially false.

As an aside though, a house voltage of 240 volts is far preferable to 120 volts like the US has. It has been shown to be far safer, as far less heat is generated in the internal wiring of the home. This does result is less electrical home fires.

 

[slipperybidness]

Basically this is nonsense. There will be less heating in the primary of the power transformer, as the current will be halved. The heat will be reduced by the square of that current. The heat and current in the secondary will be the same. Crucially the components that produce the bulk of the heat, especially the power transistors will make the same amount of heat. They are the ones most damaged by heat and produce most of the heat that damages other components like ICs especially processing chips.

So what you heard is essentially false.

As an aside though, a house voltage of 240 volts is far preferable to 120 volts like the US has. It has been shown to be far safer, as far less heat is generated in the internal wiring of the home. This does result is less electrical home fires.

It would be interesting to see some thermal imaging of an amp running at 110V vs. 220V.

 

[highfigh]

That's an Abe Lincoln quote, right?

I saw it as coming from Socrates. Maybe, it was Plato.

 

[lovinthehd]

Whether effective or not, how would a typical US home be able to use 240V without some significant re-wiring?

 

[slipperybidness]

Whether effective or not, how would a typical US home be able to use 240V without some significant re-wiring?

We already use 240V for things like electric driers, I would assume furnaces and ACs may be similar. There may be some need for running extra wires for other parts of the home.

But, then you would have all of these legacy electronics needing 110V that suddenly went obsolete.

 

[lovinthehd]

We already use 240V for things like electric driers, I would assume furnaces and ACs may be similar. There may be some need for running extra wires for other parts of the home.

But, then you would have all of these legacy electronics needing 110V that suddenly went obsolete.

Yeah the places where washers/dryers and furnaces are generally aren't where I plug in audio gear so was wondering what would be involved to get it to a typical room or rooms (let alone it only being for some amps (hopefully if you go to that expense you have a whole bunch of amps ).

 

[TLS Guy]

Whether effective or not, how would a typical US home be able to use 240V without some significant re-wiring?

We are stuck with it, due to bad decisions made years ago.

 

[lovinthehd]

We are stuck with it, due to bad decisions made years ago.

And if we had followed Edison into DC?

 

[TLS Guy]

It would be interesting to see some thermal imaging of an amp running at 110V vs. 220V.

Not really, as it is predictable. The thermal imaging over the power transformer would be down by about four fold over the primary windings. The primary windings would generate four times the heat at 120 volts as compared to 240 volts. That is simple math and 100% predictable, due to I squared R heat losses.

 

[TLS Guy]

And if we had followed Edison into DC?

That would have been a total disaster as transformers only work with AC.