Hi I live in Torrevieja near Alicante in Spain although i am from Leeds in the UK.
Our mains supply in our apartment is limited to 3.3 kw, this is very common here. Pretty obviously the supply frequently trips out when cook especially when in summer we have the air con on too. Its possible to upgrade the incoming supply to say 5.5kw or 8.8kw and pay an extra standing charge to Iberdrola. I am trying to get an electrician to do the upgrade but they have to Spanish in order to provide the correct paperwork for the legal upgrade.
Naturally I dont want to get ripped off. Many English electricians will do it illegally. The incoming mains is cartridge fused at the meter at 35 amps and the incoming in the consumer unit passes thru a 15amp 2 pole MCB then thu a 25amp breaker on the outgoing side (I think this is an RCD it is 2 pole with a test button). In turn this feeds two, 2 pole MCB (15amp for 8 sockets & 1 air con) and (10amp for 5 sockets, 7 lights & 1 air con). All kitchen power is on the 15 amp circuit. As they are radial circuits I dont know much about them I was OK with ring circuits in the UK
I have taken a digital photograph of the wringing in the consumer unit. I would be happy to email it to anyone that might be able to help. In particular, I dont understand why the incoming first passes thru a MCB and then a RCD. You really need to see the picture. I dont think that this News/g allows attachments but I will try.
I would be obliged if anyone could advise me on the work that is needed to upgrade to say about 8.8kw which would be my max short period demand. Any comments about the consumer unit wiring would be helpful.
If this is all boring or off topic please accept my apologies and just ignore all this but its really difficult to get objective advice here in Spain.
Thanks a lot
Nigel