Is there a term for "mains power" in U.S. English?

I'm not sure if this is a case of selective memory, or if it's real.

It seems that Americans do not use the term "mains power," which is common in British English. The closest synonym I know is "wall power," which is imprecise.

As an American electrical engineer, I don't want to flip-flop dialects, and "wall power" is both naive-sounding and awkward when referring to 120V AC inside a device (but still coming from mains) or otherwise far from a wall.

Is there a better term I should know, or should I assume that "mains" is mainstream to my fellow Americans?

Edit: According to Wikipedia:

In the US, mains electric power (as opposed to battery electricity, etc.) is referred to by several names including "household power," "household electricity," "powerline," "domestic power," "wall power," "line power," "AC power," "city power," "street power," and "grid power."

This insinuates that "mains" is not a U.S. term, and that the alternatives are all equally imprecise.

Conclusion: Americans are likely to use "grid" as a synonym for "mains", which isn't baseless. So really the British style only seemed better because I hadn't yet considered whether the word already has another meaning.

Solution 1:

As another American EE, I would use "mains" only in certain contexts...

After the hurricane, the hospital powered life support equipment from diesel generators for 36 hours, then switched back to the mains.

"Grid" would also be acceptable.

If you're referring to 120VAC (RMS) without caring about source, the accepted U.S. industry-wide term is 'line voltage'.

Solution 2:

Wikipedia says:

In the US, electric power is referred to by several names including household power, household electricity, powerline, domestic power, wall power, line power, AC power, city power, street power, and grid power.

Which is indeed how I refer to household electricity. We never call it "mains power."

If someone began talking to me about the "mains," what I would think of is the power feed that comes into the breaker panel of the house (i.e. feeding the main circuit breaker), not the actual electrical outlets in the house.

Solution 3:

I don't know what's more common in daily speech, but I've heard AC power a lot, and you will often find that on American websites describing computer components and in manuals. I'd not be surprised to read line power or grid power in a technical manual either, but AC power might be more frequent in a technical context. But I'm not sure. If you need to be absolutely unambiguous, you could simply call it 120-V power or something like that.