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The US is at 120 volts, not 110 volts. It was increased sometime around the 1950s. The historic reason for 110 volts was due to the DC power systems created by Thomas Edison. I think he chose 110 volts because that is what his light bulb worked on. Later on these systems were converted to AC so you didn\'t need a power plant on every corner but the voltage wasn\'t changed so existing lighting didn\'t need to be replaced (they didn\'t care if they got AC or DC) An interesting question is why the rest of the world did not wind up using 110 volts. How did 220/230/240V get started over there? The US system theoretically could be made as good as (slightly better, actually) than the European system with no infrastructure change, except to houses themselves. US houses get 240 volts at the panel. If wall outlets all were fed with 240V you\'d have the lower current and higher power advantage of the European system and it would be safer too, since each \"hot\" would still be only 120V from ground (not 240V) which keeps the reduced shock hazard advantage. Of course it is still possible to touch the two hots.