"Mr Macaw" wrote in message news
On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 15:41:43 -0000, Ralph Mowery
wrote:


Not really. Heaters here are 3kW. You're getting 1.8kW, suitable for a
hall maybe.


Most houses have central heating so not that much use for the portable
heaters. The portable heaters cost more to operate that gas, oil, heat pump
systems.



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.


We normally feed hot and cold water to the washing machines and a valve on
the machine blends them depending on hot, warm, cold. Most places have the
hot water tanks of about 30 to 50 gallons and while there is a push for the
on demand hot water, not all that many use it, or not in the area I live in.
Usually the washer is not too far from the water heater.

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.



Dryers are not normally moved and placed next to the washing machine which
is not moved due to the water lines. Also as the dryers vent the hot air
and has lint in it, they are usually vented to the outside of the house.
Good for summer and bad in winter.


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?

It does not take all that long for the iron to heat up. Takes too much time
to iron the cloths.. Perment press came out years ago. We don't even have
an ironing board. The jobs we have just require working and not dress
cloths. The wife will put a towel or something over the bar in the kitchen
to do some ironing if we relly need something ironed.


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.

Most houses are wired with 120 volt and 15 amp circuits. One good thing
about it is that if a breaker does trip it only effects the outlets of one
room. There are usually seperate 120 volt circuits for the refrigerator,
washing machine and a few other high current items that are not often moved
around.



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.

My house has 2 outlets in the bathroom connected to a GFCI breaker in the
breaker box.

The house was built around 1980 and I think the code at that time required
the GFCI for bathroom and outside recepticals.

There is a large book for the National Electric Code. It is not mandantory
for the different states, but most areas go by it or something very close to
it. From what I understand there are lots of differentrules for wiring in
the country. Some areas you have to have a licensed electrician to do any
wiring. Where I live you can do you own wiwring,but are expected for it to
meet the code. If you wire for someone as a job then you have to be
licensed and have it inspected. I did one wiring at my house that is not
to any code. Ran a # 10 wiring from the breaker box on a 30 amp breaker to
an outside receptical ( actually a combination) where I can get 120 or 240
volts, but its main use is to hook up a 5 kw generator that I have incase of
a power outage.