1khz AC, 1 Mhz AC

Well, as a motor is a inductance, it'd not work. Higher frequency means bigger "resistance" in the windings, so there'd be less current. From

50/60Hz to 1kHz, the motor would stop working. The current would be so small it would probably not work at all, at least have much lower power.

The electric fan would not work, because it has a inductance, which would pass no current at higher frequency. Not because it would average DC. Most appliances would probably not be damaged, since the current decreased. Transformers *might* work , but would have different characteristics on higher frequencies.

So most of the things that use electricity, except lightbulbs and heaters would stop working. I don't know about fluroscent lights, but I guess they'd stop working, since they're commonly in parallell with a inductance, which would pass no current, and thus not work as expected. Maybe someone else can eleborate on the fluorescent lights?

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MVH,
Vidar

www.bitsex.net

First, our power grid would not work so well. The inductance of the lines is already bad at 60Hz, and would be 16 times worse at 1 khz.

Probably nothing will work at 1 Mhz, except maybe heaters, and even this depends on the reactive component - 1 MHz is just too far from the normal range.

If you can get it to your house, some stuff will work at 1 khz and some not. Incandescent lights and heaters should work fine. Stuff with simple switching supplies (laptops and other things with power warts) may work. There is no problem in theory (they do AC->DC->AC->DC) but the input filters might be tuned to 50/60 Hz. Stuff with transformers may well work depending on the exact construction. (At HP, back when most instruments had transformers we tested almost all our products at 400 Hz, and they worked well in general.) Flourescents might come on but will be dim since their ballasts are inductive. Most motors will not work at all for two reasons; they depend on the frequency to set their speed and cannot run 16 times as fast, and the inductive winding will let less current through. Basically you would need to look at each piece of equipment to see if it would work, or be damaged.

Finally, the audible noise will be horrible. The ear is much more sensitive to 1 khz than to 60 Hz, especially at low volumes.

It's a tradeoff; higher frequencies can use smaller and lighter power equipment such as transformers, filters, and capacitors, but low frequencies are easier to ship long distances, and more convenient for rotating machinery such as motors and generators. So airplance, were weight is important and wires are short, use 400 Hz. Spacecraft, where weight is really important, use 2.4 khz.

The most part of digital clocks would run 16,7 times faster at 1kHz. So the normal day would be just under 1,5 hours at this frequency of mains power.

Antti OH7GLS

wooohooo, I vote for that during the day, and run it on 1hz during the weekend ;-)

Chris