Who's rewired their house for this hobby?

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2014-11-23 12:45, tony duell wrote:
>
>>> No, instead your table lamp is protected by a 15A breaker in the
>>> distibution panel. Hmm.. I am told that in some continental
>>> European countries it's common to have a pair of 16 A (230V)
>>> outlets protected by a single 32A breaker. And no other protective
>>> device. So a table lamp is effectively fused at 32A. No thanks.
>>
>> No. That's hearsay and forbidden everywhere.
>
> I've not seen all the electical regulations for all EU countries... Until I do I will not be convinced that such
> wiring doesn't exist anywere..
>
> What is the typical German wiring ? A 16A breaker for each outlet?

Typical is probably 10A. Same in Sweden, and Switzerland (which 
admittedly is outside the EU).
You might have several outlets on the same 10A breaker. However, all the 
wiring can take the full 10A, so there is no possibility of actually 
draw more than the breaker allows, and no way to have more than 10A 
flowing through the wires.

But if your lamp is only designed for 1A, then yes, the house wiring can 
still deliver 10A to it. How on earth the lamp would be able to draw 
more than 1A though, would be a mystery.

Of course, when things are broken, many interesting things can happen... 
But unless the fuses are broken, you would not be able to overload the 
house wiring.

The thing described, where a 16A outlet would actually be backed by a 
32A breaker would definitely be highly illegal in the countries I know 
of. But that is pretty much limited to Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland.

	Johnny