On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 15:41:43 -0000, Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Mr Macaw" wrote in message news
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.
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.
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 :-)
In the US most common items that plug in use 120 volts. The standard
current is up to about 15 amps. Good enough for small electric heaters to
warm up one room.
Not really. Heaters here are 3kW. You're getting 1.8kW, suitable for a hall maybe.
Washing machines are usually 120 volts and do not heat
the water,
We used to have washing machines which COULD heat the water, but if you were doing a warm wash they'd take half or all the water from the hot water system, but some idiot has decided to make them all cold fill, citing some ******** about it's cheaper than having your hot water tank heated up. But at the same time, we've all gone over to gas combi boilers which heat the water on demand anyway! Then I heard some crap about "the washing machine will take cold water from the pipe before it gets there from the boiler", which is wrong because if you turn on a hot tap, it's hot pretty much straight away.
dryers are 240 volts and have a special plug for that,
I can put my dryer anywhere I want in the house. I'd find it very annoying to have to rewire the house when I want to move it.
same as for the electric stoves and ovens.
Yes a stove has its own circuit here - 240V 30A.
Irons are 120 volts,
Ours take long enough to heat up, yours must take all day.
but not many use them now.
Why would you stop using irons?
Coffee pots, microwaves, and toasters and other plug in devices for the
kitchen are usually 120 volts.Problem is that unless several circuits are
ran to the kitchen you can only do one or two things at a time.
What amperage are your outlet circuits? We tend to have 240V 30A for the whole house on one loop. So you can run two or three big things without overloading, never have to think about it.
Just looking and my bill shows 2,039 KWH for this past month. That is for
all electric and I have a well for water. Been using the portable heater for
an unheated room in the basement some this winter. The summer bill is not
usuall too much less due to AC. Lots less in months we do not heat or cool.
The heat is by a heat pump.
The code is for safety. Most items come with about 6 feet of cord, so
outlets are usually every 6 feet of wall space by the code. Several
circuits for the kitchen area.
So to stop you having wires to trip over? That's going way too far with safety, I thought the UK was bad. The only rules we have for outlets is when installed near water, like in the bathroom. For some reason the rules are tighter than the kitchen, which has just as much water!
But then most of us do our own electrical work and just ignore all that **** anyway. My house, I'll have an outlet in the bathroom if I want. If I didn't, I'd only run an extension cord in there anyway.
I think my main breaker is 200 amps.
--
The squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws on the other two hides!