Overview

Going Both Ways: AC-DC

Your friendly electric power company builds its huge powerplants somewhere far away - you hope! Then they try and send electricity to you over powerlines. Unfortunately, our universe is so constructed that the further away you are from the powerplant, the more things there are that sap the power of the electricity being sent. A lot of the electricity's push turns to heat and some turns to crackling and buzzing sounds. That's what the electricity people call resistance.

To overcome resistance, the friendly power company has two basic choices. Push vast, huge, titanic amounts of electricity over the lines so that by the time it reaches you, at least a dribble is left and you can run your electric razor. Try spitting a load of water through a 50 mile long straw without stopping to take a breath and you'll get some idea of the difficulties involved. This is direct current (DC) - electric current moving in one direction only.

Hertz

The better way to send huge amounts of electricity somewhere far away is to pulse the current, sending it in powerful bursts that overcome resistance. Using the analogy of spitting through a straw, this is like giving a big spit, then taking a deep breath and spitting again. There's a lot more power behind each push. In America the electric companies time their spits... er, their pulses at 60 to the second - 60 hertz. In Ireland and all over Europe, they only spit out the electricity 50 times a second - 50 hertz. It's called "alternating current" (AC) because the pulse flows one direction, then reverses itself. (First you spit, then you suck!)

Voltage

The other electric term of immediate importance is Voltage, which is analogous to pressure. Voltage measures how much push electricity has. Low voltage means the electric current won't have much pressure, kind of like a dribble through your straw. A higher voltage means the current is stronger - the water in your straw has the Hoover Dam lake impoundment area backed up behind it.

Transformers

Electric companies like to spritz pretty strong currents through their main transmission lines - which are very big straws indeed. But, sending 10,000 volts into the average home would require some pretty thick lines, and your electric blanket would hum and buzz and keep you up nights. So, on the pole outside your house sits a heavy duty step down transformer. It reduces, or steps down, the power of the current that it allows into your house. In America, these transformers step down the current to 110 volts.

In Ireland, and across most of Europe the standard voltage is stepped down to between 220 and 240 volts. You don't have to worry about whether the exact figure is 220 or 240 and equipment will be often be rated at 230 volts. This is because electricity voltage fluctuates quite a bit so equipment is designed to handle a wide range of peaks and troughs. The official Irish figure is 220 Volts.

But the big jobber on the pole outside your house may not do the trick. Sure, the electricity coming into your house is now relatively mild, but it'll still burn the innards of any equipment rated for 110 volts. So, if you're coming from America or nations where the standard current is only 110 volts you'll need your own in-the-house personal step down transformer to run your 110 goods.

These personal transformers come in all sorts of sizes and weights. You can get tiny ones hardly bigger than an Irish plug, or you can pick up hefty units weighing a few pounds and looking remarkably like a square brick. For your computer you want the heavy variety. For your kitchen waffle maker, the little ones will do. You just plug the transformer into the wall and plug your 110 equipment into the transformer.

With that background, you can begin to deal with getting your electric powered equipment to work in Ireland.