[jchw]

I know this is common knowledge now, but just for people who might not realize it: a typical North American NEMA 5-15R receptacle will indeed deliver 120V 15A electricity, but the electrical grid is split-phase 240V. Right across from my dish washer is an electric range; most of these require 240V 30A or 50A receptacles (I think mine is 30A, but I could be mis-remembering.) So it's not like we couldn't have higher power dishwasher, but if you already have central water heating it's kind of senseless to heat the water at the dishwasher.

[gwbas1c]

> electrical grid is split-phase 240V

The electric grid is three phase; 60 or 50 hz depending on where you are in the world. The voltage varies considerably, long distance transmission is in the kilovolts, or higher.

"split-phase 240V" happens at the transformer near your house, in North America. I don't know as much about the rest of the world, but I've always understood it to be ~440v split phase because it allows longer wires between the transformer and the house.

[jchw]

Yes of course, but obviously when it comes to household dishwashers those parts of the grid are not terribly important and I think we already exceeded the pedantry budget enough.

> "split-phase 240V" happens at the transformer near your house, in North America. I don't know as much about the rest of the world, but I've always understood it to be ~440v split phase because it allows longer wires between the transformer and the house.

Where I live, we have three phase 480/277V for commercial. I believe that is standard in North America, but I'm not really sure.

[gwbas1c]

One of the reasons for the NACS switch is because light poles are ~270 volts, and NACS supports that voltage.