nanotech1 wrote:
....
what would be the max peak power usage in a house with typical
electrical appliance
Not all houses are all electric. In fact, in most places the cost
of electricity vs. natural gas makes most people choose gas whenever
they can. Gas stoves are also preferred by most cooks although electric
ovens seems more preferred as well.
ex( running the electric oven range ,the electric water heater ,the
clothe dryer ,ect ect, ect all at the same time)
In a typical house these appliances don't all run at the same time.
You could simply add up all the loads. Yes, it'll max out at more
than 2kw but then an all electric house is going to consume more
electricity than one that has gas appliances, isn't it?
Do you want to add in the power used by the plasma cutter, arc
welders and the kiln? These also are not found in a typical house
but they would consume a lot of electricity if you turned them
all on at once.
Say your using 220V 20A circuits for the oven, stove, water heater,
space heater, etc. Each circuit could supply 4.4 kw of power. If
you have 5 of these circuits loaded down at the same moment then
your house is consuming 22 kw. Obviously if you are generating
your own electricity then perhaps a little conservation might be
cheaper than buying all electric appliances.
i know it sound silly for asking a question like that
but why in the name of God most houses have main breaker box
with the main breaker at 100 or 200 amps
Because they are building the house with no idea what appliances
are going to be used. For instance, a large air conditioner could
use 20 or 30 amps at 220V easily. Add in 10 to 20 amps at 220V
for a dryer, cooktop and oven and you're up to 80 amps or so right
there. Then if the homeowner does something unusual, gets an electric
car, welds metal sculpture or the like then you can easily throw in
another dozen or so amps. They have to make the breaker box and the
wiring big enough to handle this kind of unusual situation because,
although it happens rarely, it does happen. Besides, the bigger
wire and breakers don't cost that much more.
One advantage of being your own power company is that you can decide
what kind of loads you want to have on your house and only pay for
what you need.
Anthony