dozzzzy

Sorry, what is a floating Ground? I wasn't aware their was anything, but a long stake in the gound that was earth. I have to say my knowledge of how electrical stuff work works is limited to "It realy realy hurts when you get it wrong" so I leave well alone....

Dozzzzy

frankieforehead

Umm....I Guess your right....however if you employ the formula P (Watts) = IV..and then transpose this you'll find that the Current (I) taken to run this Kettle is almost double of what it would take to run in the UK...Therefore costing Mucho Dollar more.

Souvenir

110 & 240 is standard. The wiring system here is not like it is in the UK, ie no ring main. My service panel has separate wires leading out to the cooker, washer, dryer, lighting, sockets etc. The 240 lines feed the cooker, dryer, water heater and heating system. The rest is 110.

I don't know enough about electricity to give you an answer about running a spur. I suspect that it's not permitted. When were having some new heating units put in a while back I asked the electrician about maybe installing a heater in the garage (woodwork in minus 30 isn't fun). He did say that a new 240 line would have to be run from the service panel.

SAW 04

Hi,

we sold most of out items to work colleagues and the remainder on ebay. Maybe try your local papers free adds?

Calgal

Pretty much the same here (Alberta) everything except the dryer/cooker is 110 volts. You have to get a 'permit' for any electrical work, which has to be done to meet code, and then inspected and passed.

MikeUK

the formula you should use is P = V^2 R as R is the only constant.

But also remember this is and AC Current not DC for the calculations as the power used is the area under the curve of the AC waveform and we have an increase in mains frequency that impacts the power curve

I tend to simplify it by halving the voltage you half the power...not correct but good enough...

iaink

Do you really want to know LOL!

In the 240V AC distribution coming into the house if you stick a meter on the two wires it will read 240V, but thats between the two wires, neither of which is ground. This is said to be a floating circuit...no ground. If you measure from one wire to a grounded wire, water pipe etc it will measure 120V, if you measure the other wire to the ground it will measure 120V, and thats how you get the two 120V circuits the rest of the house is wired to. The 240V coming in that is used for the drier and cooker is 240V relative to the two wires, not the ground circuit.

I dont know, but i suspect that rather like the two prong plugs here, Some UK appliance often us one of the terminal wires as the ground as well, (the blue negtive one is common with the green earthed one? which is fine in the UK, but if you plug it into a gerry rigged 240 floating circuit could end up killing you if it malfunctions and is not grounded correctly. I'm not an electrician, but I imagine you would have to be really carefull how you grounded your 240V circuit here as it will shock you from pole to opposite pole as well as from either pole to ground. :scared:

Souvenir

Just a thought, for anyone likely to be purchasing a house over here. Places built in the sixties and early seventies may well have aluminium wiring, or a mix of aluminium and copper. Best avoided.

Ditto urea-formaldehyde foam insulation (just say no, because your mortgage lender will).

MikeUK

the formula you should use is P = V^2 R as R is the only constant.

But also remember this is and AC Current not DC for the calculations as the power used is the area under the curve of the AC waveform and we have an increase in mains frequency that impacts the power curve

I tend to simplify it by halving the voltage you half the power...not correct but good enough... Thats why you see the term VA which is used for apparent power a term used when dealing with power consumption involving AC current in real terms the power in a purely resistive load would be closer to a quarter such that 100watt 250v bulb would consume closer to 25watts at 125v if the mains frequency was the same
(I really shouldn't have used the term watts)

frankieforehead

Seems sensible enough...

dozzzzy

D'oh

WHAT on earth does this mean, I just scratched my head and now will have spend several hours with the tweezers and a magnifying glass to get out all the splinters from under my finger nails

Dozzzzy

Please don't reply that was a rhetorical question

iaink

UFI insulation is a nightmare, but although Aluminum wiring is a bit of a pain its not the end of the world if your dream home has it. Aluminium wire behaves differently to copper in the connectors, and can get lose which is where problems arise, it just needs more maintainence to check for and fix lose terminal screws etc.

Nothing intrinsically wrong with Aluminium wires, in fact thats what most of the power grid is made from as its light enough to string along the pylons (but with a steel core for strength), and cheaper than copper too.

Souvenir

I believe that cost (the cost of copper) is the reason it was used for a while. It does have a tendency to corrode, which can b****r up connections a bit, especially if you're joining Cu to Al. It'll snap if you look at it hard, too.

I'm fairly sure that somewhere in my Black & Decker book on how to destroy your house it is stated that work on Al wiring requires special tools that are available only to licensed electricians.

It's better than wet string but I'd rather not have it in my home.

Biiiiink

Same as the others - we shifted some stuff as part of the house sale (projection TV which wouldn't have travelled well...etc etc) and the not-so-good stuff went to a charity. All our computer things, DVD player and so on are dual voltage, we've been surprised at that.

I bought a 20 UKP step-up converter from Maplin's on Mike's recommendation before we left, it was 100w and I just used it with a 75w appliance and it blew after 3mins Boohoo. In the bin.

Stuff doesn't seem too cheap here so I'm glad we've brought the bulk of it with us, just the small applicances need replacing.

wensamjam

does it ???...:scared: :scared: :scared: