General > General Technical Chat
The US electrical system
tooki:
--- Quote from: tom66 on June 26, 2020, 10:13:52 am ---The idea of 400A 240V service to me is just baffling. In the UK it's rare to see any home over 100A 240V service, single phase, and many older homes have 63A or 80A service. Some larger homes have 125A.
This creates a real hassle for EV adoption because there isn't enough local capacity to have two car chargers @ 32A each on someone's driveway. Many DNOs (the local network operators) have designed the power distribution networks with the assumption that all customers will use an average of 4-5kW at peak. That falls apart when people are charging their cars and heating/cooling their homes with heat pumps. Local upgrades are going to be necessary.
--- End quote ---
Don’t you have 400V three-phase service for major appliances? (Here in Switzerland, that is quite common.)
duckduck:
--- Quote from: GlennSprigg on June 26, 2020, 11:08:12 am ---As a 'fun' diversion here... :P
Many years ago in the bush, (I worked for that power authority), we would just string a 'clip' up
to the powerlines above with a pole, when out on the road. And connect it to a 're-wired' 30-Amp
kettle to make coffee. Took about 15 secs to boil !! Though it shook like hell, haha... 8) ;D
Also, in regards to effective energy management, ref a few times in this post...
I also worked more recently with a major company, ('Honeywell' actually!), where I was responsible
(amongst countless other things/equipment) for Energy Management systems in multi-story buildings.
Now, 'some' buildings owned & occupied by one company, are 'interested' in such savings...
However, multi-story bldg owners with MANY other companies residing within, would SCOFF at my
offerings of savings!!! Why?... Because they would individually meter the whole bldg, and on-sell the
power to all the bldg customers! Often making from $100,000 to $500,000 profit, JUST from re-sale
of electricity per year!! They actually WANTED all their customers to be as in-efficient & wasteful as
possible!! Always made me laugh, when the Govt was pushing for 'efficient' buildings... hahaha... :palm:
--- End quote ---
Love the kettle. I would watch from a distance ;D I have much respect for the people that build and maintain the electric lines. When I make a mistake I might burn up a fancy LED or a $6 opamp.
Off topic but apropos, there is little incentive to improve the fuel efficiency of cargo ships because most ships are leased (ball park of US$10,000 per day) and the lessee pays for fuel. The ship owners couldn't care less. Large shipping companies that buy their ships outright e.g. Maersk care very much about fuel efficiency because it directly affects their bottom line.
schmitt trigger:
If people think that 120 volts is too low a voltage for the larger loads (a thought which I also share, BTW), in Japan it is only 100 volts.
themadhippy:
--- Quote ---Don’t you have 400V three-phase service for major appliances
--- End quote ---
As mentioned above 3 phase in domestic premises is rare in the uk.I can only think of 2 occasions ive come across it in 35+ years and both were much larger than the average 2up 2 down.
IanB:
--- Quote from: tom66 on June 26, 2020, 10:13:52 am ---The idea of 400A 240V service to me is just baffling. In the UK it's rare to see any home over 100A 240V service, single phase, and many older homes have 63A or 80A service. Some larger homes have 125A.
--- End quote ---
I was curious when he talked about 200 A service in the video, and then he showed a "small" pole mounted transformer which presumably provided the supply. I know those transformers are bigger than they look when they are down on the ground, but I still wondered how many lots of 200 A it could supply before being overloaded?
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