New appliances

[davek]

My small 1 bedroom apt. does not have a main breaker inside, though I suppose there is one at the meter. Anyway, the 110v circuits that have regular plugs are 20a. The ones for the stove and HVAC have 50a pairs. The hot water heater has twin 30a breakers.

I've never tripped a single one.

It's pretty clear to me that the electric supply to my apartment is stronger than that of many larger homes other places.

 

[dj-gabriele]

I can't believe that there are so many installations with "real fuse boxes" I have never seen one in all my life!
Even in my older flat (built in the 70s) we had a general GFI plus an overcurrent device (a magnetotermic switch) that automatically tripped the circuit should an overload occour.
When the power goes of, it's an overload I simply flip the switch back on and if it was the GFI that went off, disconnect everything and reconnect one thing at a time after restornig the service. Like last time it happened I was ironing and dumped the bottle of deionized water over the running iron (with my hand on it) and luckly power went off without me even feeling anything.

Can you post a photo of an actual fusebox and actual disposable fuse? What rating do you have for the single fuses??
Thank you!

 

[mielabor]

Fuse...

What we have:

The fuse box is the black box.
The circuit switch is on top, the fuse is in the middle and at the bottom is a covered hole for a second fuse. When this fuse box was installed in 1992 we had a two phase 220V system (127V on each phase) and two fuses per circuit were required. After conversion to the one phase one neutral 230V system one fuse was removed and the hole covered.
To the left of the fuse box is the door bell transformer, still with two fuses (the black screws hold the fuses).

 

[mielabor]

Fuse removed:

The red screw down the hole limits the fuse rating to 10A. Fuses with higher ratings have a larger diameter and don't fit.

 

[mielabor]

The fuse in it's holder:

 

[mielabor]

Fuse taken out of holder:

 

[mielabor]

Front side of fuse:

The red disk in the middle pops out when the fuse blows.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Very interesting!

And you have a fuse for each branch of the circuit or there is a main one on the panel? And do they work along a GFI like the thermal switch here or they're the only protection? How much does an averange fuse cost?

 

[foraloysius]

Fusebox

Here's mine!

The switch on the top right is the GFI. There are three 16 Amps circuits, the one with the white switch is for the washing machine.

 

[mielabor]

Each circuit has its own fuse. In small installations there is no main switch. There is a main fuse, but that's located in a sealed compartment (green rectangle) and not user replaceable. The red rectangle marks the location of the fuse box in older installations. When I lived with my parents we had a white porcelain fuse box there (one 16A circuit for the whole apartment!).

 

[mielabor]

Fuses can be used in combination with RCD units, but older installations do not always have these. When I got a new fuse box in 1992 it looked like this (picture taken with kind permission of my upstairs neighbour):

 

[mielabor]

As we still have the old wiring with rubber and cotton isolation which has become very fragile, I decided to install a RCD myself and my fuse box now looks like this:

 

[mielabor]

Correction!

I didn't get the new fuse box in 1992 but later, I think 1998 or thereabouts. The year 1992 was for the fuse box that I showed earlier. That was installed together with lighting in our staircase. Before that we had to climb the stairs in complete darkness during the night

 

[dj-gabriele]

It feel strange to see fuses!

Anyway, here's a photo of the inside of the dishwasher:
Bottom rack has foldable plates holder to make it completely flat for pots & pans, upper rack is adustable in height with the push of a button and both are mounted on roller bearing for smoot operation. The cultery basket can be split in two and can be placed anywhere in lower or upper basket.

You can see SMEG's unique "orbital" washing arm that is said to clean better in the corners because of the smaller wash arm mounted on one of the sides, I like it because it's completely made of stainless steel, also the filter is self cleaning and the heater is hidden. This dishwasher can be connected to BOTH hot and cold water. It has 9 programmes and it has 2 rinses by default on every cycle, on the "strong" and sanitize ones it does 3, yet it uses either 13 to 17 litres of water with a capacity of 14.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Here's the close up of the orbital wash arm and self cleaning filter

 

[dj-gabriele]

Here's the oven, with self cleaning lining and no visible heating elements, I think this is super cool! The only visible thing is the double grill on the top of the cavity. The lamp switches on by itself as soon as you open the door and the fan stops. It can heat from cold to 200°C in only 4 minutes! My current oven needs three times that!

 

[mielabor]

How does that self-cleaning filter work?

 

[dj-gabriele]

Obviusly also the oven is energy rated, A class! hehe, that's important because my mother bakes a lot of stuff and the oven is on everyday!
What is better is that everything is proudly made in Guastalla, near where I live!
Oh, I just noticed that I can see my reflection in the oven and also the price tag! Too bad!

 

[favorit]

guess it washes better even in the centre of the rack. Many modern DW don't have a nozzle in the centre of the lower sprayarm so small pots don't come clean in the centre of the rack

 

[dj-gabriele]

And here's the final shoot of the outside of the exibition, notice all the FAB range fridges on the windows! What a view!