The government plans to change the voltage for home appliances from 110 to 220 to save electricity and comply with world norms, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday.
The newspaper said the state-run Taiwan Power Co has completed an evaluation of volt conversion. It is now up to the Ministry of Economic's Energy Commission to decide when to launch the project.
"South Korea has begun the conversion and Japan will follow suit. If Taiwan sticks with the 110v, it will become the `orphan among world electric appliances,'" the paper said.
In European countries, home appliances use 220v. In this country, all home appliances use 110v except air conditioning systems which use 220v.
"Taiwan began to consider voltage conversion more than 10 years ago, but has not taken the step yet. Now that South Korea has almost finished volt conversion, the government is in a hurry," it said.
South Korea finished its evaluation of voltage conversion in 1963, launched the conversion in 1973, halted production of 100v machines and equipment in 1978, introduced dual-volt in 1980 and completed volt conversion for 1,100 homes in 1995, the newspaper said.
South Korea hopes to finish voltage conversion for all homes before 2005, the paper said.
Taiwan, Japan, China and many other Asian countries still use 110v.
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