Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bob wrote:
You're right for once. The Americans do think we're mad using
combis - they heat their water by electricity.

Then they must be the mad ones. Electricity prices when I lived
there were much higher than here, making electric heating was even
less economic than it is here.

I suspect gas isn't as freely available as here - it's a much larger
country to pipe up.


I had gas, but only for the cooker hob. The bill about was $6 per month, $5
of which was standing charge! The airconditioner on the other hand added
about $50 per month to the electricity bill in the summer! In fact, I'd say
electricity prices were about 3 times what I pay in England (and that was
before the California power crisis).

Americans do seem a bit backward when it comes to appliances, like
those awful top loading washing machines with the clothes-shredding
paddle.

We couldn't even buy an electric kettle - "Haven't you got a stove?"
they all said.

All down to the common 110 volts and the maximum current you can take
from an outlet - IIRC means about 1 KW element as opposed to our 3.
Would take forever to boil.

Well I did get one from Canada in the end - it worked just fine.

Bob