DWL-900AP+ External Mounting Environmentals ;-((

[Brett Lymn]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 08:43:48AM -0000, Tim Kerby wrote:
>
> AC is used to remove reactive lossed.
>

Errr no - reactive losses occur only in AC systems, there are no
reactive losses in a DC system at all only resistive ones.

>  If you think of the whole electricity
> system as a big capacitors and inductors which technically it is, then a
> huge amount of power would be required to 'charge it up'.
>

What you say here is broadly true, there are some other subtleties but
let's not go there ;-)

>  AC reduces these
> losses, and as Brett said, is a lot easier to work with when it comes to
> transformers.
>

The whole reason we have a AC distribution system it to manage
resistive losses in the power distribution.  Mr. Edison never wanted
AC to be used, he was pushing hard for DC distribution which would
have meant a power station every couple of blocks just to keep the
resistive losses down - it may seem odd now since AC is pretty much
ubiquitous for domestic power but it was a big issue once upon a time.
 
-- 
Brett Lymn