Friday, May 29, 2015

Living On 15 Amps



Americans take their cheep electric service for granted. You don't think its cheep? Well it is. Here in Italy the cost is three to four time what it is in the US.
What's  more dramatic than the cost, is the amount of service available. The basic home service is 15 Amps.  I think the minimum required service in the US is 150 Amps. What does that mean? Well it means that we can't use the oven and a hair dryer at the same time. If we do, the over load breaker will trip at the meter and we loose all power in the house. Then we have to trot down stairs and reset the breaker. We could upgrade our service to 30 Amps, but it would double our electric bill during the months that we are not here and only have seven lights that come on at dark. 
Next time your drying you hair and the AC,TV,Oven and varies other appliances are all on, just be grateful you don't have to run outside and reset the breaker. 

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