6 ms·

Yes, it's funny that when the standard unit is a somewhat lower number (so the KW number is the same magnitude but just a bit lower / less impressive than in HP

Yes, it's funny that when the standard unit is a somewhat lower number (so the KW number is the same magnitude but just a bit lower / less impressive than in HP) there is more resistance to the change.

bipson 5y ago
I think in EU it is mostly due to the German car industry (and all the associated publications) unwilling to change. In the German speaking world everyone knows what a hp is (PS), how much his car has, his past cars had, in which configurations their car is available... although the kW is what is printed on the documents since ages now. Nobody likes change. Some people still complain about the Euro, and that the DM was so much better... At least it is not called ECU.
- tim333 5y ago
  Also the non techie and children are more familiar with horses than with kWh.
  - usrusr 5y ago
    I'd dispute that. Everybody can roughly imagine a 1/4 multitude of the 2.5 kW of a typical hairdryer, nobody has a meaningful mental image of the amount of continuous work one could expect rotating a number horses (peak power per horse is about 15 hp)
    - kube-system 5y ago
      This makes sense now. We must not use kW in the US because we have horses but we don’t have any 2500W hairdryers!
      - usrusr 5y ago
        Heh, that's interesting: "The country where everything is bigger (*)" (* except for consumer goods that would be designed around a practicable supply current of 10A elsewhere)
        kube-system 5y ago
        They still are bigger if you measure in amps! But seriously, I do like the split-phase power we have in the US. I think we get the best of both worlds, having lower voltages in most living spaces, and higher voltages reserved for high-power appliances.
        gambiting 5y ago
        >>I think we get the best of both worlds, having lower voltages in most living spaces How is this possibly a benefit for anything though. It's not like 110V is safer in any practical way, if you stick something in a socket it will kill you just as much as 220V would, so it seems like for literally no reason at all American homes have a much less "ability" to support a wide range of devices that work without any issue elsewhere in the world.
        kube-system 5y ago
        It's safer because of ohms law. Anything you short it with (whether that be an object that might heat up, or a human) will pass half the current and a quarter of the power. I've been shocked with 120v on bare skin multiple times.
        gambiting 5y ago
        Yes, but my point is that it's still just as deadly for a human. It's like asking whether you want to be in a plane crash going 300mph or 600mph - it doesn't really matter. The #1 improvement in home safety when it comes to the electrical system is the socket design to prevent foreign objects entering(like the British plug design for instance), and second one is a working RCB fuse to kill the power before you even feel a tingle. 110V or 220V doesn't really matter.
  - spaetzleesser 5y ago
    Absolutely. They may have even seen a real horse a few times in their life.
- usrusr 5y ago
  This is so true! Fortunately, for BEV we seem to switch and this works incredibly well. You see kW and you know its about electrics, you see HP (or rather: PS) and you know it's about one of those wonky old "explosions in a tincan" things that eventually displaced the horse. It's quite powerful linguistic era demarcation.

bipson 5y ago

I think in EU it is mostly due to the German car industry (and all the associated publications) unwilling to change. In the German speaking world everyone knows what a hp is (PS), how much his car has, his past cars had, in which configurations their car is available... although the kW is what is printed on the documents since ages now. Nobody likes change. Some people still complain about the Euro, and that the DM was so much better... At least it is not called ECU.

tim333 5y ago
Also the non techie and children are more familiar with horses than with kWh.
- usrusr 5y ago
  I'd dispute that. Everybody can roughly imagine a 1/4 multitude of the 2.5 kW of a typical hairdryer, nobody has a meaningful mental image of the amount of continuous work one could expect rotating a number horses (peak power per horse is about 15 hp)
  - kube-system 5y ago
    This makes sense now. We must not use kW in the US because we have horses but we don’t have any 2500W hairdryers!
    - usrusr 5y ago
      Heh, that's interesting: "The country where everything is bigger (*)" (* except for consumer goods that would be designed around a practicable supply current of 10A elsewhere)
      - kube-system 5y ago
        They still are bigger if you measure in amps! But seriously, I do like the split-phase power we have in the US. I think we get the best of both worlds, having lower voltages in most living spaces, and higher voltages reserved for high-power appliances.
        gambiting 5y ago
        >>I think we get the best of both worlds, having lower voltages in most living spaces How is this possibly a benefit for anything though. It's not like 110V is safer in any practical way, if you stick something in a socket it will kill you just as much as 220V would, so it seems like for literally no reason at all American homes have a much less "ability" to support a wide range of devices that work without any issue elsewhere in the world.
        kube-system 5y ago
        It's safer because of ohms law. Anything you short it with (whether that be an object that might heat up, or a human) will pass half the current and a quarter of the power. I've been shocked with 120v on bare skin multiple times.
        gambiting 5y ago
        Yes, but my point is that it's still just as deadly for a human. It's like asking whether you want to be in a plane crash going 300mph or 600mph - it doesn't really matter. The #1 improvement in home safety when it comes to the electrical system is the socket design to prevent foreign objects entering(like the British plug design for instance), and second one is a working RCB fuse to kill the power before you even feel a tingle. 110V or 220V doesn't really matter.
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  Absolutely. They may have even seen a real horse a few times in their life.
usrusr 5y ago
This is so true! Fortunately, for BEV we seem to switch and this works incredibly well. You see kW and you know its about electrics, you see HP (or rather: PS) and you know it's about one of those wonky old "explosions in a tincan" things that eventually displaced the horse. It's quite powerful linguistic era demarcation.