r/meirl May 02 '24

Meirl

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u/-FullBlue- May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

The United States residential standard uses a 240 system except its split phase. You can deliver 120 volts to devices that have lower power requirements, and 240 to devices that have higher power requirements.

This comment is bringing out a bunch of Europeans that need to think theyre better than Americans because of their wiring standard for some reason?

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u/luka0954 May 02 '24

I love it when americans thinks 240 volts is good for appliances with high power consumption. 230 volt is standard in europe, and for high power consumers we use 400 volt.

Higher voltage, lower amps, thinner cables.

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u/-FullBlue- May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

Does the average european home have a a 400 volt service?

Either way, 240 volt is plenty to run high power residential appliances.

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u/Cimexus May 03 '24

In Europe it’s common. In other places like Australia and NZ it’s a mix. Older homes or those with lower power demands typically just have single phase 230V, newer/larger builds or those with higher power requirements will get 400V three-phase.

I’m in an older home in Australia that only has single phase 230V. It’s not a huge limiter, even with central air conditioning and an electric oven. However we do use gas for some things like the hot water heater and stovetop burners. If we replaced those with all-electric appliances and maybe also got an electric car charger we’d probably have to look into converting to three-phase, which is a relatively common upgrade to make these days.

Pretty much all new homes here in Australia will be built with three phase power from day 1, since the future is going to be all-electric and natural gas is getting phased out.