Residental electrical load [was Re: Who's rewired their house for this hobby?]

[Mouse]

> I have an induction cooktop installed, which is vastly more efficient
> that electrical resistance heating--and more controllable.

(But it has its own downsides, like not working with glass pans - I
have a glass skillet....)

> I asked my local utility if there was an energy credit available for
> that--the response was that cooking accounts for perhaps 2% of the
> average household energy budget, [...]

Interesting!  What _does_ account for most of the draw?  Are you in an
area where electric is common as the energy source for routine heat?
Thinking about my own experience, I'm fairly confident the ranking goes
heating (if electrical), computers, cooking, and then everything else
is down in the noise - and that's for me personally; most people don't
have nearly the computer load I do.

> In fact, many, if not most small electronics here (TV, computers,
> etc.) use SMPSUs, so distribution voltage matters not a whit as far
> as they're concerned.

I've wondered about that.  SMPSUs draw no current most of the cycle,
drawing heavily on the peaks, without the smoothing effect of the mains
transformer present in (most) non-switching supplies.  This is almost
nothing like most historical load, which is mostly either resistive or
inductive.  I'm curious whether it has a significant effect on the
grid; do you happen to know?

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