Mains power voltage drop to reduce usage?

[Commander Kinsey]

Did you make sure the new pipes went through your meter? :-)

[Commander Kinsey]

Americans just like to boast. Y'all got 2 phases here! British folk don't do that!

[John Larkin]

Yes. Late-70s.

[Commander Kinsey]

Ah, I assumed it wasn't a recount of such a long time ago.

[Commander Kinsey]

Depends. Do you have 3 phase motors? What's the total kW you can draw? Isn't it annoying to try to share it equally between the phases?

[Commander Kinsey]

Ah, this was it:

[Commander Kinsey]

Wimp. I take it you mean these?

[Commander Kinsey]

Mmmmmm.... simple UK single voltage, no silly voltages from breakages. You really do not need two different voltages in your house. Why are Americans so terminally stupid? The rest of the f****ng world doesn't this centre tap bullshit.

[John Larkin]

The plan is to underground all the wiring here. Check back in a hundred years or so.

The standard lot in SF is 24 feet wide. The thermals are good, since only the houses on the ends of the block lose any heat on their long sides.

[John Larkin]

The garage door is to the right of the pole. We don't really have "driveways" here.

[Commander Kinsey]

Ugh. So you can hear next door's stereo.

[Commander Kinsey]

What is the black car parked on?

[DJ Delorie]

Well, America and UK both have 240V service in their houses, but American houses have no live wires more than 120V away from ground. Granted, 120V is still dangerous, but it's less dangerous than 240V. So one has to ask, why do you allow such dangerously high voltages in your house?

The rest of the world, however, has verbs.

[Jasen Betts]

No. most devices will use the same.

Anything with a thermostat will use the same power, (same energy just spread over a longer period - same average power) Anything with a regulated powersupply will use the same power. The only things that won't are fixed loads like lighting (but they will be dimmer - so users may be encouraged to turn on more lights)

If you turn down the frequency then pumps and elevators will run slower, but there will still be the same amount of fluid needing to be to pumped and the same number of passengers.

With any kind of service it's best to assume that demand will be fixed unless you can get make some of the customers quit, eg. by increasing the price, or rolling outages.

[John Larkin]

No, we can't.

The loud noises here are mostly from birds. The noisiest are the flocks of wild parrots. And Big Daddy, a raven about the size of a turkey.

[upsidedown]

Yes, indeed.

In my country house I currently have only one pump, which require three phases. My electric sauna and electric stove are wired for three phases, but could be wired for single phase. In my top floor city apartment I have three phases, currently powering only the electric stove

With 3x25 A main fuses 17 kW and with 3x35A 24 kW.

Isn't it annoying to try to share it equally between the phases?

With up to 50 houses powered by a single transformer, the loads are quite naturally spread between phases.

[Gerhard Hoffmann]

Because here in .de I have 3 * 240V, 120° apart around GND and my induction stove yields 7.5 KW for each of the front pots. Essential when Gerhard wants spaghettis NOW using 4 liters of cold water. That works even better than gas.

Cheers, Gerhard

[John Larkin]

It's just parked on the street. The grey one just uphill seems to be blocking the garage, which is probably the house owner himself. It's legal to block your own garage.

San Bruno is a 90-degree parking street. I park there and walk over the footbridge, over I80, to work. Good exercise.

This is an interesting place. A real, dense city that's still part wilderness.

I couldn't stand living in NYC or Boston or LA.

[John Larkin]

The plugs in the UK are about as big as a cat. They have fuses inside.

[The Natural Philosopher]

IIRC all domestic heatpumps have resistive heaters, because its necessary to bring DHW up to temp to kill germs.