Comment by holoduke
9 hours ago
Hell no. 1.5kw is half a socket capacity. A heat pump or many kitchen appliances are using much more. Our car charger uses more as well.
9 hours ago
Hell no. 1.5kw is half a socket capacity. A heat pump or many kitchen appliances are using much more. Our car charger uses more as well.
That's why they said "depending on country"
In North America we are on 120V, making a standard 15A outlet only 1500W max, and something like 1200W sustained. To use higher wattage appliances, we have to upgrade our outlets to 20A (2000/1600W) or up our voltage to 240V, but that carries a different set of plugs and outlets as well.
Usually the home service is 200+ amps these days which is 24 KW total across all circuits, though you're right that most individual circuits are only 10-15 amp.
> In North America we are on 120V, making a standard 15A outlet only 1500W max, and something like 1200W sustained.
It's 1800W for short periods and 1500W sustained.
In the US they have a 120V system so it might actually saturate a normal socket over there. My PC room has a 16A fuse and 230V though, so should be plenty :)
Most North American homes would have 240v and 200Amp service. A 16Amp fuse seems down right tiny:)
We have 50 amp service running a hot tub and another 50 amp service line to charge an electric car.
The US has a 240V system for residential power, not a 120V system.
Most homes in the US have 200 amp service. That's 48 kW of power available to the house, though code states that you can only pull 80% of that continuously, so 160 amp/38.4 kW.
The 120V misconception comes from the fact that it is delivered as split phase on two 120V legs. Any competent electrician can run a 240V, 50-amp (40 amps/9.6 kW continuous) circuit to any room in a house. Plenty of homes have these circuits for electric ranges, EV chargers, or RV power outlets, and there's nothing stopping anyone from having one of these circuits installed in whatever room they'd like it installed in.
Heck, my old landlord and I installed one ourselves to provide an outlet for an EV charger in the garage of a house I lived in about a decade ago.
400 amp and even higher service is available, though it is fairly uncommon. Plenty of large houses will have a 400-amp service, though, which means you can double the power numbers available that I mentioned above.