X-Nico

6 unusual facts about AC power


AC module

An AC module is a photovoltaic module which has a small AC inverter mounted onto its back side which produces AC power with no external DC connector.

AC power

Major delineations of the concept are attributed to Stanley's Phenomena of Retardation in the Induction Coil (1888) and Steinmetz's Theoretical Elements of Engineering (1915).

Audio power

Since the instantaneous power of an AC waveform varies over time, AC power, which includes audio power, is typically measured as an average over time.

Centrino

Laptops with Intel vPro technology have hardware features that allow a system administrator to remotely access wired and wireless laptops for maintenance and servicing if the operating system is unresponsive or crashed and, when a laptop is connected to AC power (not on battery power), allow a sys-admin to remotely access the laptop when the system is asleep or laptop power is off.

Constant-voltage speaker system

The main disadvantage of powered loudspeakers is that they have the additional requirement of requiring AC power, whereas passive speakers have no such requirement.

Electric toothbrush

Woog's electric toothbrushes were originally manufactured in Switzerland (later in France) for Broxo S.A. The device plugged into a standard wall outlet and ran on AC line voltage.



see also

Alternating current

William Stanley, Jr. designed one of the first practical devices to transfer AC power efficiently between isolated circuits.

Captive helicopter

At the end of the 1930s, the German company Telefunken tried to make a longwave transmission experiment with a captive helicopter driven with a three-phase, AC-power engine.

John Theodore Merz

His son, Charles Hesterman Merz, was a successful electrical engineer who pioneered the use of high-voltage three-phase AC power distribution in the United Kingdom.

Schöneweide–Spindlersfeld branch line

From 15 August 1903, overhead electrification with AC power (6 kV, 25 Hz) was tested on the line by the company Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (UEG), which merged the following year with AEG.

Shorepower

Batteries on a vessel may be used to power an inverter (SMPS) capable of producing AC, which can be used for appliances that require AC power.

Variable-speed air compressor

The most common form of VSD technology in the air compressor industry is a variable-frequency drive, which converts the incoming AC power to DC and then back to a quasi-sinusoidal AC power using an inverter switching circuit.