5 ms·

Isn't that a waste of copper? My house has about 20 Amps (3.3 kW at 230 V).

rypskar 8y ago
Are you sure your intake fuse is only 20A? Where I live it is normal for each circuit to have 16A, and if you have induction stove at least 20A for it. My intake fuse is only 55A (230V) since I have an old house, but should be upgraded
- bonzini 8y ago
  I checked now and the fuses are 15 A + 15 A, but the utility company disconnects me if I go over about 4 kW (18 A), or over 3.3 kW for more than a few minutes. My sister-in-law has an induction stove, so she gets 40 A and the stove is connected directly to a separate bigger fuse.
  - burfog 8y ago
    That is really strange. Here, the utility company would be happy to have you buy lots more power. Are you lacking a meter? Is the utility company unable to read your meter remotely and unwilling to send a truck out to read it? This would explain things, in which case you'd want to charge batteries (for free!) whenever you don't need all the power you have purchased. Fuses are weird too. Those went out of style 60 years ago. Maybe you will find this weird: I have a device that lets the utility company cut the power to my water heater. They can remotely activate it if they are having problems. In exchange for having this, I get a discount.
    - bonzini 8y ago
      No, they can remotely read it. Italy had one of the first smart grids in fact. It is just the standard here to only buy 3.3 kW unless you have induction stoves. Having more power available costs a little more, and on top of that you pay for what you consume. As to "fuse", my mistake as I am not a native speaker. I meant breaker.
    - rypskar 8y ago
      >>Fuses are weird too. Those went out of style 60 years ago. In my language a breaker is called an automatic fuse, so easy mistake to make
imeron 8y ago
You sure about that? That would mean either running an electric oven, or an electric hob, or an aircon. But no more than one of those at once.
- bonzini 8y ago
  It's 230 V so two of those but not all three indeed. I don't have an electric hob but electric heater + dishwasher + oven certainly triggers the breaker.
  - Gibbon1 8y ago
    If I'm getting what you're saying you have 15amp service for the house? My house was built in 1950's. Used to have two 20amp fuses. One for the lights and one for the outlets. In the US houses typically have 100-200 amp service now.
Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
There's no way you're only getting 20 amps to your house. A microwave will consume 8-12 amps. A desktop computer is around 3-5 amps. I don't know what my electric stove used when I still had one, but it needed a 40 amp breaker on its own.
- lultimouomo 8y ago
  The standard home contract in Italy is 3.3kW, at 230V it's less that 15 amps for a resistive load. The meter will allow you to go over the allotted power for some time before disconnecting you though (the amount of time is inversely proportional to how much your going over, and I don't think you can ever go over 4kW). Heating and stoves are gas based (ovens usually not though); going over the limit is not usual, the only common problem is when using air conditioning in summer which is becoming more widespread, and so are higher power contracts (we're not talking more than 6kW, though). According to my utility, I consume annually 2660kWh, that is 300W average, much less than the 1.2KW for an American household. Note that for home contracts the limit (and billing) is on power, not amps, so using inductive or reactive loads will not penalize you.
  - tecleandor 8y ago
    Here in Spain we're paying a lot for the power allotted to the contract, being around 30 to 40% of the bill. So, I'm paying around 20€ (before taxes) just for having a 5.75kW contract, and then I have to add my kWh consumption. So reducing your consumption doesn't reflect that much on your bills. Is that the same on Italy ?
    - bonzini 8y ago
      Here it is 2 €/month/kW, my total bill was 40-50 €/month before I had a solar roof installed. I consumed about 400 W on average in a house (with solar the consumption is up by 60 W because of the inverter, but I save 30 to 70% plus I can sell a little surplus).
  - dreamcompiler 8y ago
    Italy used to be strange in that there were two electric feeds per house: One for low-power loads and one for high-power loads. Is that system gone now?

Are you sure your intake fuse is only 20A? Where I live it is normal for each circuit to have 16A, and if you have induction stove at least 20A for it. My intake fuse is only 55A (230V) since I have an old house, but should be upgraded

bonzini 8y ago
I checked now and the fuses are 15 A + 15 A, but the utility company disconnects me if I go over about 4 kW (18 A), or over 3.3 kW for more than a few minutes. My sister-in-law has an induction stove, so she gets 40 A and the stove is connected directly to a separate bigger fuse.
- burfog 8y ago
  That is really strange. Here, the utility company would be happy to have you buy lots more power. Are you lacking a meter? Is the utility company unable to read your meter remotely and unwilling to send a truck out to read it? This would explain things, in which case you'd want to charge batteries (for free!) whenever you don't need all the power you have purchased. Fuses are weird too. Those went out of style 60 years ago. Maybe you will find this weird: I have a device that lets the utility company cut the power to my water heater. They can remotely activate it if they are having problems. In exchange for having this, I get a discount.
  - bonzini 8y ago
    No, they can remotely read it. Italy had one of the first smart grids in fact. It is just the standard here to only buy 3.3 kW unless you have induction stoves. Having more power available costs a little more, and on top of that you pay for what you consume. As to "fuse", my mistake as I am not a native speaker. I meant breaker.
  - rypskar 8y ago
    >>Fuses are weird too. Those went out of style 60 years ago. In my language a breaker is called an automatic fuse, so easy mistake to make

imeron 8y ago

You sure about that? That would mean either running an electric oven, or an electric hob, or an aircon. But no more than one of those at once.

bonzini 8y ago
It's 230 V so two of those but not all three indeed. I don't have an electric hob but electric heater + dishwasher + oven certainly triggers the breaker.
- Gibbon1 8y ago
  If I'm getting what you're saying you have 15amp service for the house? My house was built in 1950's. Used to have two 20amp fuses. One for the lights and one for the outlets. In the US houses typically have 100-200 amp service now.

Sohcahtoa82 8y ago

There's no way you're only getting 20 amps to your house. A microwave will consume 8-12 amps. A desktop computer is around 3-5 amps. I don't know what my electric stove used when I still had one, but it needed a 40 amp breaker on its own.

lultimouomo 8y ago
The standard home contract in Italy is 3.3kW, at 230V it's less that 15 amps for a resistive load. The meter will allow you to go over the allotted power for some time before disconnecting you though (the amount of time is inversely proportional to how much your going over, and I don't think you can ever go over 4kW). Heating and stoves are gas based (ovens usually not though); going over the limit is not usual, the only common problem is when using air conditioning in summer which is becoming more widespread, and so are higher power contracts (we're not talking more than 6kW, though). According to my utility, I consume annually 2660kWh, that is 300W average, much less than the 1.2KW for an American household. Note that for home contracts the limit (and billing) is on power, not amps, so using inductive or reactive loads will not penalize you.
- tecleandor 8y ago
  Here in Spain we're paying a lot for the power allotted to the contract, being around 30 to 40% of the bill. So, I'm paying around 20€ (before taxes) just for having a 5.75kW contract, and then I have to add my kWh consumption. So reducing your consumption doesn't reflect that much on your bills. Is that the same on Italy ?
  - bonzini 8y ago
    Here it is 2 €/month/kW, my total bill was 40-50 €/month before I had a solar roof installed. I consumed about 400 W on average in a house (with solar the consumption is up by 60 W because of the inverter, but I save 30 to 70% plus I can sell a little surplus).
- dreamcompiler 8y ago
  Italy used to be strange in that there were two electric feeds per house: One for low-power loads and one for high-power loads. Is that system gone now?