THE TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: June twenty-first, with power points on plugs and juice.

Experienced travelers know that electrical currents, voltage levels and wall plugs vary around the world. For the unprepared, this can be frustrating, even dangerous. Consider the following.

Electricity around the world is delivered at either 110 volts, like at home, or 220 volts, as in Europe and Asia. In some nations voltage can change from location to location. Running an appliance on the wrong voltage will fry its circuits. Also while the AC current in the U.S. alternates 60 times a second; other places, it cycles just 50 times.

Many portable computers come with convertor transformers, but most other appliances will require a separate unit. Simple devices that step down 220 electricity to 110 can be bought in travel and department stores. Low wattage convertors run about $20, but heavier duty transformers for heat producing appliances cost considerably more.

Wall plug connections are another concern. The world has five basic ungrounded plug configurations and eight for grounded plugs. The one Americans use, two flat, parallel prongs, is standard in the Western Hemisphere. Most ungrounded plugs in Europe have two round prongs, but there are local exceptions. For example, British sockets take either three flat or two oversized round prongs. In Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, plugs have two flat prongs, but they're set at angles.

Here's a rule of thumb for plugs. Since the two-pronged system is used in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Japan, U.S. travelers only need adapter plugs for trips to Europe, Britain and Australia.

FMI For a complete listing of foreign electical requirements, visit www.franzus.com/serv01.htm or call 800-706-7060.

Back to June 2002 Main

Look through the list of fascinating places and off-beat features we’ve covered. Search text versions of past episodes and articles in our archives.