• dan@upvote.au
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    13 days ago

    Standard outlets in the USA are 120v at 15A (1800W max peak, 1440W max continuous). In comparison, standard UK outlets are 230v at 13A (2990W peak)

    This also affects other things. For example, standard electric heaters (resistive heat) can’t get as hot in the USA.

    Edit: Also, dryers in countries like UK and Australia don’t need a special type of outlet.

    • Ross_audio@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Due to a quirk of unifying 2 standards, Europe and the UK, the range is 216.2 volts to 253.0 volts.

      That encompasses infrastructure built to a tighter tolerance around 220V in Europe and infrastructure built to a tighter tolerance around 240V in the UK (and Australia).

      We expect 3150W out of a kettle most of the time. Our heaters will say 3kW.

      Usually you’ll find a few volts over 240 out of our outlets and that’s to design spec.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        13 days ago

        Thanks for the info! I’ve never actually lived in the UK so I was just guessing based on what I’ve read online.

        I was going to use Australia as an example (since I was born there) but standard outlets in Australia are only 10A so they’re not quite as powerful as the UK ones :). There’s 15A outlets but they’re not very common.