The solar system is more of a hobby thing really, rather than a money saving option. Just fancied giving it a go to see what happens.

As with everything in this country, what is allowed and what happens is rarely the same thing.
I have two separate meters, one supplies the main house the other the garages and annex. the second one was changed last year on a time basis, the house one is not due (another change) yet which may or may not indicate they were originally installed at different times.

It will be the case that they were installed in an earlier time when the elec. co. would install 2 services to the same plot. I have 2 plots each with 2 separate meters (the plots have 2 dwellings each) last year I wanted an extra gas meter on one of the plots and I was told No, so I will have to have my own sub meter and subtract the usage from the main meter for the billing.

The charging here is that you get a 32A day meter and 32A night meter as the standard supply with the first amount of kWh at a lower rate. Extra amps cost about 5000huf. per amp. If they gave additional meters (services) to plots then it would be a cheap way to get additional power.

I will ask for a separate meter for the barn when I am ready. Worst they can say is no. It seems to me that many Hungarian businesses policies are actually hurting there profits. We had a big row with KaposNet over making international calls. Once you go over a set amount they disable your ability to make ANY outgoing calls until you pay them everything you owe them. Never had that problem before and yes, we always pay our bills when they are due. We said to h with making any more long distances calls on their land line. We now have gotten set up with Skype. I think the limit at KaposNet is 10,000 Ft worth of long distance calls. I am glad the gas company doesn't operate that way. Hate to think halfway through the month they shut off your services. Actually the gas company seems to under bill and then drop a huge catch up bill in June. Last summer we got a catch up bill for 130,000 Ft. I asked them to charge more each month so that doesn't happen again but so far they are still under billing. The joys of life in Hungary!

That's interesting. Our gas supplier has been very proactive about adjusting our monthly payment - & coughing up the appropriate refund, without being asked.
​​​​​​⠀‹Electricity Company likewise - although we haven't qualified for a refund!

Our electric bill is usually about 8000 Ft per month right now because we don't use a lot of electrical appliances because we only have a 16amp 3 ph supply. Once we do the modern kitchen with microwave, dishwasher and several other small appliances in there plus what I want to do out in the barn I suspect our power bills will more than double for electric. Our gas bill runs around 20,000 Ft a month because we have gas heat with (5) of the big FEG convector units and a boiler plus gas cooker and due to my severe arthritis I have to keep it hot inside the house to be comfortable in the winter. I see wood heat in our future. I don't worry about a refund check, I just don't like them to drop a bomb on us in the middle of the summer (make up bill) apparently they are only reading the gas meter once per year..

Our meters are read just once a year, which is a lot better than our experience in the UK!

What an interesting read, on Hungarian bureaucracy and how things work in other countries. I have seen that typical home power connections in Italy are also limited to only around 35A, which greatly limits what you can run simultaneously, with a washing machine reportedly often causing the house breaker to trip.

In the US older houses have a 100A supply (equivalent to 50A @ 240V), but that is usually considered to be inadequate as it only allows one "high power" appliance to run, so one of: cooker, water heater, clothes dryer, or whole-house AC. That means older houses typically have a gas cooker, gas water heater, and often only "window" (single room) AC. New houses are built with 200A supply, and older homes are often upgraded to 200A when AC is installed. The upgrade costs about $1,500/£1,200.

We are now looking at another house that has '380V industrial power'. What actually does this mean?

The supply has three live wires, each at 220V, and a neutral. The voltage measured between any two of the 220V wires is 380V.

Thank you.

What is also important is the amps available at each of the 3 phases (wires). If it is 3 x 16 then a washing machine and a dishwasher won't run on 16A so care will need to be taken (= expense) with any rewiring to ensure power hungary appliances (anything with a heater, washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, oven etc.) are run on separate circuits or at different times.

Ohh, that's interesting. Thanks, Peter.

We are currently modernizing a 1957 built house.
It has 25 A and 10 A fuse box with the newer EON meters,
I have just bought a 32 A ceramic hob cooker, which will not run at existing house as we only have 16 A,
We can only run it off a 5.5 KV generator, albeit half it's capacity.
We are going to ask EON to upgrade, but unsure what amperage I really need.
If we upgraded to say 40 A, would they remove the old meters/fuse boxes?
Or could we just have say the 40 A installed with new meter and just run the cooker off that?
Use the 25 A for sockets and the 10 A for lighting?

Regards

Michael/Julie

Any upgrade to the amps will require the meter box to be upgraded as well. This will be your cost.

You won't be able to get another meter installed along side you existing meter because Eon will only supply one service to a plot. You could try asking but I am sure the answer will be NO.

I presume that your current 25A and 10A is 25A day meter and 10A night meter. Do you have 2 meters in the box? Here the circuits are not separated for power and lighting and are usually 16A with several 16A radial circuits run from one 25A (or 32A) main fuse. (Ring mains as in the UK are not used here). The usual box layout is for Eon main fuse at the bottom, above which is the meter and above the meter are the customers fuses.

Whilst in theory washing machines and dish washers can be run on the night meter which would reduce the day meter load, in practice they can't because the modern machines have digital controls which need power to delay start which means that you can't connect them to the night meter.

When you upgrade you will be entitled to 32A day meter and 32A night meter. anything over that will cost about 5000huf per amp. So an upgrade to 40A will cost an extra 25,000huf on top of the work to the rest of the system to bring it up to standard.

Your 32A ceramic hob will need a dedicated circuit and then you will need power to run everything else which I would suggest would be another 25A minimum given that you don't want too many restrictions like if the dish washer is on you can't use the microwave or washing machine etc. So this additional 25A will cost about 125,000huf. (on top of any other upgrade work needed)

You will need an electrician to do the work and then get Eon to upgrade the Amps. But I would expect the electrician to organise the Eon upgrade as part of the job. Make sure you are sitting down when discussing the cost with the electrician.