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Comment by occamrazor | Hacker News Reader

Maximum available power for standard domestic users is still only 3kW in many places. Might not be enough for a gaming PC, washing machine and microwave!

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You would fit a gaming PC there?

I have a microwave (1270W) and dishwasher (2400W) on the same circuit (230V, 16A). It didn't trip yet...

230 x 16 = 3680 and 1270 + 2400 = 3670. Living on the edge.

Depends on your country, in the Netherlands 25A and 35A main fuses are common.

that's it?? that's not enough to even power an electric stove

Don't forget that they use 230V, and electric stoves often use three-phase power. Even with a 25A fuse that gives almost 10 kW of power.

Exactly, a "cooking fuse" is not uncommon, which is two 16A lines to the same stove. That gives you 7360W to play with, something you won't reach in practice.

Alternatively, if you already have a multi-phase connection, then you would of course have the lines on different phases. If you have a 3-phase connection 25A main fuse is common, for single phase connections 35A is common.

Just to clarify here: when you talk about a "main fuse", you mean one that sits between the meter and the entire rest of the panel, correct? So individual circuits would be downstream of the main switch.

For context, most American homes have 240V split phase (single phase for all intents and purposes) service with a 200A main breaker.

Wtf do residential homes need 48 kW of power for? I guess it's nice to charge your car quickly, but other than that I'm struggling to think of any uses.

Simultaneously washing and drying clothes while cooking a turkey in the oven, brussel sprouts in the toaster-oven, boiling water for tea, distracting the children with a computer or tv, doing some welding in the garage, and powering a bunch of Christmas lights. --- This is something that actually happened one year. It is much easier to use a big wire and a big breaker/fuse to the house than to have the power go out.

Between my electric heat, dryer, stove, water heater, and car it's easy to get close to the limit, and that's before anything that runs on 120, like computers, a refrigerator, lights, or washer.

So do American stoves. I have a 50A/240V circuit for my stove.

Three phase on the other hand is a slight of hand, since that gives you more power than what 230V would imply ;)

Where, in deep russia ?

3kW is typical kitchen power.

In Italy it is very common. The wiring is normally rated for more (4.5kW) The power is limited at the counter switch.

> 3kW is typical kitchen power

Most stoves used to be gas powered. Now induction is becoming more common (but it requires an upgrade to 4.5kW).

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