How are your appliances connected

[mielabor]

Ingemar's (Gorenje) thread "Laundry in Slovenia" generated a discussion about the various methods of connecting appliances to the power supply. Therefore it seemed a good idea to start a thread specifically about this subject.

Here is my own solution: I live in a 1930s apartment that was not designed for the use of much more than a vacuum cleaner. I have one socket in every room (two in the living room) so I use many three-way diverters

Here I have connected my washer, dryer, refrigerator and microwave all together to one socket:

 

[mielabor]

Here's the socket (combined with a turning switch, the switch does not switch the socket but a switches a lamp over the wash basin):

 

[mielabor]

It's not grounded!

 

[mielabor]

The appliances are grounded with a clamp on the water pipe:

 

[mielabor]

Same for the water heater (called "boiler" in Dutch):

 

[mielabor]

The water pipes are connected with a long metal pin that has been driven into the earth under the house. Previously, when only metal pipes were used in the system, no separate pin was used and when plastic pipes started to be used, a copper wire inside those was used to connect the metal sections. However, after the use of plastic became widespread the grounding pins were installed in the houses.

Although the electricity supply has been privatised for many years, the identification plate of the water heater still says that it is property of the City of Amsterdam:

 

[toggleswitch]

The bottom lights up when energized.

I'm not sure, of course, but that hot water heater looks like what they use in Greece, mounted up high in or near the bathroom to service the whole house. Theirs has a pilot/indicator light near the bottom that glows when the elements are on. They typiclaly power it up just before a shower then shut it off during the shower. (Indicator light out means it has reached temeperature). There is still tremendous fear about electroctuion, which I understand happended more than a few times at first.

1,500 watts? Isn't that a bit weak? Even we could even run that on 110v! How many litres does it hold?

~Here I have connected my washer, dryer, refrigerator and microwave all together to one socket.
OOOH CHILD that would have to be be at least two to four circuits here. On 110v we justt cant squeeze that many watts our of a 15a or 20a line!

SORRY to get to excited. I just LOVE this stuff!

 

[foraloysius]

Good heavens Theo, now I totally understand your joke! I haven't seen such a thing in a long time. My grandparents had a house with only two groups with one for the electric cooker (2 burners) and one for the rest of the house including the washing machine.

With all the appliances I have and use (!) I would totally blow up the system!

 

[mielabor]

Toggleswitch:

The water heater has a capacity of 50 litres (13 gallons). It is designed to heat up during the night and keep the water warm during the rest of the day. It worked like that till we switched from the two hot wires system to the hot wire + neutral system. Nowadays it's always active as the high frequency signal that was put on the wires by the electricity company is no longer there. The switchbox is still there as it also has the main switch to shut the heater down, but the push buttons to temporarily override the day/night signal are no longer functional.

Louis:
Of course I cannot use all appliances at once. It has become a second nature to avoid overloading the system. I have two 16A circuits, but my parents lived in a house with only one 16A circuit. I have seen the fuses (for a two hot wire system you need two fuses per circuit) glowing reddish in the dark frequently. Of course they had always plenty of spare fuses at hand.

 

[foraloysius]

Theo,

What's the temperature of the hot water? IIRC the electric water heater of an aunt heated the water up to 80*C.

 

[toggleswitch]

In residential settings:
Our typical electric hot water heater here is 3,800w/4,500w on 208/220 v resectively (20a).
5,500w (30a).

Here is the plug and(flex) cord of my electric cooker/stove. Typically 40a or 50a circuit prtoection. [always 208/220v when it has four "eyes" (burners) and/or an oven].

It is a "temporary" outlet I put in until I get rid of that awful paneling in the basement. There was a bar (the kind you find in a pub/tavern) in front of this so sorry it's a mess.

Paneling is supposed to be OVER sheetrock (real walls); not in my house!

The outlet itself is 2" in diameter (just over 5cm) and is the newer style with four conductors: ground/earth, neutral, L1 & L2 (line/hot).

L1 (OR L2) to neutral = 110v
L1 to L2 = 220v

Pre 1990's the neutral and the ground shared a conductor (wire), outlet hole, and prong.

 

[toggleswitch]

$2 clock courtesy of IKEA

Typical washer and GAS dryer connections, electrical

10a washer + 6a dryer = 16a which is 80% of 20a and is therefore permissible on one 20a 110v line.

Cast iron drain piping from 1946
Plastic drain pipe added 2002.

Here one can see also the black (iron) 1/2" diameter (I.D) pipe for natural gas for the dryer. This pipe must be galvanized (rust portection)in warmer / moister climates but what you see is allowed here. Our exhaust ducting/hoses for dryers are 4.0 (102 mm).

 

[toggleswitch]

Up your nose with a rubber hose.

Typical water to washer.

One valve shuts off both hot and cold. So far, I have yet to see a machine here with a "cold" only fill.

Copper chambers above valve are "air-hammer" eliminators.

For an electrical switch here, pointing UP means "turned-on". (That makes PERFECT sense to me, and is rather intutive!) So I had to mark this valve where "UP" is off! (Markings not shown).

 

[toggleswitch]

Here is how the Maytag badged Samsung (Sam's Hung) is connected to the sink. Hot and cold inlets on the machine are joined via a "Y" connector.

Water temp, of course, is selected at the faucet/water spout

 

[toggleswitch]

Sink connection of FridGeMore (also not shown).

Little SS braided hose is from the dehumidifier. Did you notice that the inside is actually plastique? Sneaky, huh? (I snipped the threaded connectrr off of that end).

The big black hose was so powerful, I had to strap it in place or to would drench everything. (OMG, is it hot in here, or am I getting a hot flash! *LOL*)

 

[toggleswitch]

Now the GE FF (circa 1991) so far gets cold water only.

Here is a tap that existed on my oil-burnign boiler that makes steam for house heating and heats the water for hot water for the taps.

Sorry fellow North-Americans to have bored you to tears; but to other continents this may have been a bit interesting!

Now all of you have seen my plumbing and pipes what does yours look like?

 

[mielabor]

Louis:
The water used to be heated to 80C, but I have messed a bit with the temperature regulator and now it's around 45C. I know, again against regulations (never set temperature under 65C to prevent Legionella), but it's more comfortable that way. The heat loss is also lower when the water is not so hot.

 

[mielabor]

Toggleswitch:
You have so many pictures I'll try to deal with some of them (it's 0:40 am now so I need to go to bed)
First picture: why are there four prongs on the 220V plug? Do you use 110V and 220V simultaneously? I have never seen such an arrangement here. In domestic situations circuits that are rated more than 16A are rare. When you need a higher capacity you should use a 400V circuit. At my work we have a water distiller that is rated at 7kW and it is connected to a 230V/32A circuit. The plug is much larger than a 16A plug, but it still has three prongs (hot/neutral/ground). See picture for comparison.
Then do I understand correctly that neutral and ground were the same thing in the past? Now I can understand why switching off the neutral is not a good idea, however, it doesn't seem safe to me.
Second picture:
I know those clocks. We have several of them (blue) at my work. Is that a metal socket box? It looks very sturdy to me. I like it. And you use gas for the dryer, that is very friendly for the environment although I understand that it is usually not because of this but because of the limited capacity of 110V circuits. Gas dryers are very uncommon here although they have been promoted with government grants. Miele had a nice gas dryer but it has been discontinued due to lack of interest.

Tomorrow I will look into your plumbing

 

[mielabor]

Frontal view of 230V/32A plug: