Using a 110V electric supply, instead of 200+ or whatever like the rest of the world.
I don’t think that’s a valid measure of a country’s energy efficiency. It’s just a voltage standard.
Is your question mostly about efficiency, or about voltage standards of the US compared to those of the rest of the world?
From off the top of my head, I seem to recall that the US 110v is a throwback from when the first AC electrical systems were being implemented. At the time, it was the best way to do it.
However, soon after it was realized that 220v is better as higher voltages travel long distances better. So, most other countries opted for this standard.
I have no recollection as to where I read this crap and have no idea why this information continues to exist in my cranium.
I would think that the US/Can would be some of the WORST offenders re: wasting energy. All you gotta do is look at the massive 5.0L V8 engines in many of our cars/SUVs. European cars generally have smaller engines and more of them are diesel which is more efficient.
MEh.
We might have a lesser “quality” of power lets say… but we surpass the “quantity” of power usage more than enough to make up for it.
Just to be clear, voltage is not a measure of energy. The power (energy per unit time) used by an electric device is equal to the voltage multiplied by the current the device draws. So you can’t necessarily compare the energy efficiencies of a device designed to work with 110 V and one designed to work with 220 V, since the 220-V device was probably designed to draw less current than the 110-V one.
As to whether the U.S. is more or less energy-efficient than other countries, you can take a look at this Excel spreadsheet from the U.S. Department of Energy. Of the countries on the list (not counting dependencies, colonies, etc.), the U.S. ranked 11th in the world in terms of energy consumption per capita in 2002, behind Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Singapore, Kuwait, Trinidad and Tobago, and Luxembourg. However, U.S. energy consumption per capita is still almost twice that of most of the major European countries (UK, France, Germany, Austria, etc.)
This really isn’t really related to the OP (I believe he was asking about electrical energy efficiency, not fuel), but doesn’t Europe in general have a higher population count compared to North America? While we do have many 5.0L V8’s (hardly massive, compared to the good old Caddy 500 8.1L engine), wouldn’t a bunch of little 4 cylinders be just as bad?
Good grief, a 5.0 V8 is over twice the size of any car my Dad has owned, from sports cars up to Volvo estates, more than the capacity of both parent’s cars together :eek:
I suppose to be fair you’d have to check means of transportation for both continents. Do Europeans fly less, use public transport like trains and buses more? Surely a better way of looking at it is what would happen if Europe suddenly went on a big engine splurge and only bought larger capacity engines?
Just for clarification, can energy consumption be considered the same thing as energy efficiency? I’m no economist, but if we’re talking about efficiency, shouldn’t it be total consumption divided by GNP?
Electricity is not distributed at 110V in the U.S. Power is distributed at tens of thousands of volts on the backbone. Local power substations step that voltage down to a lower value, usually 7,200 volts. That’s the voltage of the power lines running into your neighborhood. When it gets to your house, it’s stepped down again by a local power transformer. I have one right out in front of my house - it’s a big grey box on the neighbor’s lawn, and it serves both of our houses. For those who still have power poles, the neighborhood transformers look like big cans on the pole.
The electricity that comes into your house is actually 220/240V, on three wires. One wire is a ground, and the other two are 110/120V. If you tap from the ground to one of the other wires, you’ll get 110/120V. If you tap across both the 110/120 lines, you get 220/240V back. That’s how you get 220V for your dryer or freezer.
The electrical distribution grid is just as efficient as those in any other countries, within the tolerances of wear, age, etc.
Is the U.S. more efficient than other countries? It depends what measure of efficiency you’re looking for. If you go by energy use per capita it’s not, but that’s not really the right measure for what you’re looking for, because energy use per capita tells you nothing about energy efficiency unless you filter out all the other variables. For example, Canada uses more energy per capita than the U.S., but the reason isn’t lack of efficiency. The reason is because our population is more spread out, so we have higher transportation costs, and because it’s colder up here and we need more energy to heat our homes and businesses. Canada shares the same power grid as the U.S., so we’re exactly as efficient in that regard.
Also, you would have to factor out the difference in standard of living, too. A house with three computers and four televisions and lots of lighting is going to use more energy than a house that doesn’t have these things, even if the first house is more efficient.
Your dad has never owned a car with a V-8? Not even a 60’s car with a chevy small block in it? Back in the 50’s and 60’s, the Chevy 283/327/350 small block was a ubiquitous engine. Every other manufacturer had similar engines. The big engines of the day were the 396/427/440/454 big blocks.
5 Liters is about 305ci, and that’s just not that big as engines go. Those old 427s are about 7 liters.
When I was a kid my dad had a 1966 Ford Galaxy 500 with the police interceptor package and a 7 litre engine.
Not really because not all the energy or electricity consumption is intended to produce something. I’m currently consumming electricity for my computer, a light bulb and a stereo, and I’m not producing anything.
I assume the OP should clarify a little his question.
I’m no economist either, but if you’re interested in that data (which the DOE calls “Energy Intensity”), here it is. (Again, Excel format.)
Europe’s total population is about 730 million, USA’s nearing 300 million. BTW Europe’s is virtually stable and projected to start falling by 2020, whereas the USA’s is still increasing.
But Europeans have fewer cars per head, and with smaller engines each also. I’d bet total engine capacity in Europe would be smaller than in the USA, if such a stat were possible to gather.
As an example Russia has passenger cars 132.4 per 1,000 people, the UK has passenger cars 384.3 per 1,000 people, and the USA passenger cars 480.6 per 1,000 people. I can’t immediately find a figure for all of Europe but I’d project it’s about 200-250, or half the US figure.
I think the original OP question has been answered - the same laptop consumes the same amount of energy whether you plug it in in the US or whether you plug it in the EU.
I’d suggest opening a new topic if you want to discuss relative energy consumption of different countries and so on. Surely building an airconditioned city of light in the middle of a desert isn’t going to help the national average if you’re not using solar energy.
It’s true btw, a 3.0 liter engine is considered phenomenally big here. Also in my country we literally pay double the price of fuel that the people in the U.S. pay, partly because we factor in the price of environmental damage caused by exhaust fumes, roads and so on (they are hard to calculate, but its easy to see it’s damaging).
I’m probably going to a car show tomorrow (it’s here in Amsterdam, only once in 2 years, and usually quite good), and I’ll try to make pictures of most of the cars there. Even though you see more expensive cars there than you’d see in the street, I’m sure the average fuel consumption is a lot lower even there.
On the other hand, I’ve been told that the U.S. is slowly discovering the Prius. 
Back in the fifties, Britain was creating the Morris Minor and the Mini. V8s are huge by European standards - big cars have never been a priority in the American way, partly due to restrictions of a pre-car infrastructure.
Thanks Sam - Yeah, the transmission lines are often in the 100K volt range.
BTW, GM has a new engine for the Vette. It is a 7.0 liter, cam in block, 2 valve push-rod engine that will spin over 7,000 rpm’s. I am certain that it is an extremely efficient engine. Just because it is big and powerful does not mean that is does not efficiently use the gas it gets. There is nothing right now that I can think of that would make that engine even more efficient than a couple of turbos - especially if ya need to go over 200 
To emphasise: Brit-side, the standard car engine is a straight four, < 2 litres, until you’re getting into the prestige end of the market. We consider a 2.3 litre V6 pretty hot for family transport. 4-litre car engines are insanely huge and no Brit would consider it surprising to go for days at a time without seeing one. Engines have shrunk a little over the years and there used to be a fair number of 3-litre and 3.5 litre engines about the place, but even they were considered big.
Power is distributed at high voltages because transmission loss occurs as a factor of volts per unit length. Transmit your electricity over long distances at a high voltage, and you lose a smaller percentage of the voltage. From this site:
The 240-volt power that enters your house consists of two 120-volt lines that are 180° out of phase. 240-volt power is normally used in North America for high-resistance loads: stoves, clothes dryers, water heaters and heating elements. I’m not sure if European homes get 480 volts split in the same way; perhaps another Doper can clarify.
Wattage (the power consumption of an appliance) is volts multiplied by amperes. A 1200-watt toaster on a 120-volt circuit will draw 10 amps. The same toaster on a 240-volt circuit will draw 5 amps. But they both consume the same amount of power.
The other voltage available in the UK is what is knows as 3 phase and is rated at 415 volts. This is never used in domestic situations. only in industrial and commercial premises. This is because we can run heavy current devices such as heaters on the ordinary 230 volt supply and do not have to resort a second source,as in the US. The 3 phase supply can run even larger current devices , hence the use in industry.
The electricity in the street is in the 3 phase form and usually every third house is fed off the same phase , with a common " neutral " as the return line. I once lived in a house where just one phase would fail in the street and so every third house used to be blacked out. If this happened when it was dark I used to go out in the street , see if every third house was in darkness and then phone the electricity company to tell them of the problem.
For safety reasons 110 volts are also used for large hand tools as used by professional builders. This voltage is supplied by a portable transformer which plugs into the 230 supply. The transformer is centre tapped to earth ( ground ) and that is safer to use.