22 Nov
2014
22 Nov
'14
2:56 p.m.
On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 02:46:29PM -0500, Todd Killingsworth wrote:
[...]
How much of what you collect requires 220v? How many
big boxes do you keep
running - 24/7 or just turn it on/off as you want to use it?
On this side of the Pond, everything is already nominally 230V and all UK
sockets are good for 13A :)
That's part of the source of the stereotype of the British always having a
kettle on for endless cups of tea: a litre of water boils rather quickly when
one dumps 3kW (i.e. 230V*13A) of heat into it.
I guess somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized
that old machines took
lots of power. But do the collectors here wire up their homes and keep
machines there? Or do you have another place (old warehouse or somesuch)
that already supports multiple 220v hookups? Or do you colo it somewhere?
I don't own anything that draws more than 13A, but if I did, I'd hook it into
the cooker circuit which is good for 40A (or 9kW). While it would be somewhat
unusual, it is still legal and safe for a DIYer to do that without getting a
professional in. As it happens, I *have* tapped into the cooker circuit, but
only because it was the most convenient supply for some white goods and not
because I needed the current.
Besides, doesn't the USA also have fairly chunky 220V cooker circuits? I'd
just dive in with a reel of twin and earth and be done with it. The only hard
bit is to do it in a tidy enough manner to not get a bollocking off the missus.