On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 05:04:22 -0000, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Mar 2016 21:11:01 -0000, "Mr Macaw" wrote:

On Sat, 05 Mar 2016 19:50:19 -0000, wrote:


More wires and outlets all over the house, inconvenient I guess.

Why are more outlets "inconvenient"?

Because of the two different types. If I want to plug in a hoover, I use any outlet. You have to find one of the right voltage. So to make it as likely to have one, you need twice as many outlets.

In fact our code requires that you are pretty much never more than 6
feet from a receptacle, not crossing a door or other opening.

Why on earth would convenience be in your code? I thought "code" was for safety?

240 equipment is generally going to be fixed in place anyway.

I will say that in my travels I was impressed with the 240v tea
kettle, if you really make that much tea.

So what are your kettles? 110 volts and 1.5kW? That would take an age to boil. Or do they have a 30 amp flex?

What about an iron? A portable fan-heater or convector heater? There are loads of appliances which need a lot of power that you may wish to move about.

It is interesting that you only have 11kva transformers.
No, 11kV, not 11kVA. I meant the voltage going into their primaries.

We actually have much bigger ones than yours then, the one opposite me serves about 100 houses. It's very large and when it was replaced I saw them unload it off a flatbed lorry, it took up half the trailer. In case flatbed lorry means nothing over there, this big: http://www.truckexporter.co.uk/sites...?itok=2iIv3msv

OK my fault. I had understood that you folks did distribution from
centralized transformers.
I think we went will smaller transformers and maintaining the medium
voltage for distribution because our homes tend to be farther apart.
The I2R losses from 240v distribution over many hundreds of feet would
be substantial. What is your typical load calculation for a home?
We have a minimum service requirement of 24KVA (100 amps)

We get 240V at 80-100 amps. I for some reason have a 100A master fuse, followed by a meter which has a rating of 80 amps. I've seen some old meters that say 60 amps. However the wire coming into my house is quite substantial and could probably take 300A if I told them I needed more, and they could just change the fuse and the meter.

and 400 amp
services are not uncommon. They do build a 125% cushion in that
calculation and the required feeders are only 80% of that calculation
for the entire load of a dwelling.
I am sure Americans still use more power than you folks across the
pond but isn't that our way ;-)

If we're not in the middle of nowhere, heating, hot water, and cooking is done by gas (it's 3 times cheaper), so we don't use that much electricity. Showers, washing machines, and dishwashers tend to heat their own water, so those and a tumble dryer (our weather is very damp) are about the only things that wil use much.

My usage ranges from about 2 MWH a month

Looking at my last bill, I used 1.5MWH between April 25th and Oct 11th, which is several times less than you. WTF are you doing with all that power?

to around 2.5 MWH when the AC is on.

Now you see AC isn't needed in the UK :-)

That is between $200 and $300 with all the fees taxes and other
charges.

Here, 2.5MWH would cost £340 = $480, about twice what you pay. Why is America cheaper for everything? There's a phrase "rip off Britain" but nobody knows why it's the case.

It is an "all electric" house tho, including pumping water. I have no
other utilities.

Do you use heating? Since you said AC, I'm assuming a warm climate.
Do you have a swimming pool?

--
I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart.