> This is no doubt in part because most stuff we run on 240 in the US is higher amperage anyway, You've got the cause/effect backwards I think. The high amp st

> This is no doubt in part because most stuff we run on 240 in the US is higher amperage anyway, You've got the cause/effect backwards I think. The high amp stuff needs 240v to avoid ridiculous amp requirements. The lower power stuff just defaults to 120 because that's the most compatible leading to the chicken-and-egg problem. > probably in part because some stuff also wants a neutral? I've tried to come up with reasons this might matter but so far I can't. The Neutral (or really L2 in this scenario) is the reference plane. It moves in step with L1 and so when L2 is high (+120) L1 is low (-120), but from the POV of the reference that's just -240. Same for the other cycle half. In other words measuring voltage is relative in all cases. Unless you are measuring in relationship to the earth (an infinite sink for our purposes) you can't tell if you are seeing +120/-120 or +240/0. Perhaps there is something that relies directly on the voltage potential between Line and Ground, I just don't know of any. Most things that are sensitive to an actual ground reference are electronics which run on DC and are separated from the mains by their power supply anyway.