7 Oct
2005
7 Oct
'05
4:32 p.m.
On 10/7/05, Bj?rn <bv at norbionics.com> wrote:
On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 19:57:14 +0200, Ethan Dicks
<ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
wrote:
> In my area...old 60 Amp drops... and lots of the modern 200 Amp
200A @ 110V makes for 22kVA per phase - what do you
need all that power
for?
I use electrical heating (in southern Norwegian climate), and rarely need
more than 7kW.
Electric heat, electric hot water, electric oven, electric clothes
dryer, air conditioner, 2-3 TVs...
It's typical to see a couple of 20A 220V breakers for things like
dryers, plus 30-50A for stove, plus I don't know what for heat (never
had electric heat) in a 200A panel, plus at least ten 20A breakers for
wall outlets and light fixtures.
I would suspect that some time ago (40 years? 50 years?) they looked
at the "standard" 60A feed designed in the days of electric lights and
little else, and decided that 200A was good enough to handle "most"
consumer needs without spending too much money on excess
infrastructure. I do not know what devices resulted in that number,
but I'm sure a 50A electric stove was part of it (there's one in the
other room - upper and lower ovens and 4 burners). Electric hot water
heat is also demanding (but I've never lived in an "all electric home"
- I've always lived in older, gas-plumbed areas).
If there's anyone on the list who is a US licensed electrician,
perhaps they could speak up if they learned about this facet of
history at some point during their career; I'm just speculating based
on what I've seen in my geographic area.
-ethan