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Electricity

Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 8:24pm
4 replies139 views2 members subscribed
Kimmyfish

Posts: 5

1 helpful points

Location: Balsicas

Joined: 21 Jun 2020

Hi - we have our Electricity through Iberdrola which is currently set 3.45kw , its a holiday home but we still think its to low ?  What is the normal for a 3 bed house with pool , aircon etc ?  concerned it will start tripping if we have various bit and peices on the go.....any advice gratefully received 

Thanks K 

Roland

Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 10:25pm

Roland

Legendary helpful member

Posts: 3519

2581 helpful points

Location: Camposol

Joined: 23 Feb 2018

Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 10:25pm

A 3.45kw supply is going to be a real pain with that sort of load.

It is going to be constantly tripping out.

I would think you should upgrade to a 5.5kw supply.

Be aware that your monthly standing charge will double though.

Will60

Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 11:11pm

Will60

Helpful member

Posts: 317

315 helpful points

Joined: 10 Feb 2020

Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 11:11pm

We have 3.45 kw.

we have 3 a/c units, a 1.4kw pool pump, an electric oven, a 1.5kw electric water heater, washing machine, dishwasher, the usual small appliances, etc.

During our first year here, we had several trips. We had to go to the meter box in the street and press the reset button on the meter.

But we learnt to live with it. We have time-clocks on the pool pump and the electric water heater, so they never operate simultaneously.

But when we have visitors from the UK (those were the days ... hopefully back soon) it was tricky, as they didn't "know the rules".

We are having some building work done over the next few months, and we will upgrade to 5.5 or 7.?

The armoured cable from the meter box to our consumer unit needs to be replaced.

   

Kimmyfish

Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 5:52am

Kimmyfish

Original Poster

Posts: 5

1 helpful points

Location: Balsicas

Joined: 21 Jun 2020

Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 5:52am

Thank you both for your help, much appreciated.  We will do just that , we stayed in a villa once whereby if you happened to put the kettle on whilst the washing machine was going , it all tripped !!  So want to avoid all that faff,

Hope you are all OK there , we fly back on 25th June all being well and cannot wait to see our villa we purchased during the pandemic and have yet to see  ..LOL.... K

Will60

Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 10:35am

Will60

Helpful member

Posts: 317

315 helpful points

Joined: 10 Feb 2020

Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 10:35am

Kimmyfish wrote on Sun May 23, 2021 5:52am:

Thank you both for your help, much appreciated.  We will do just that , we stayed in a villa once whereby if you happened to put the kettle on whilst the washing machine was going , it all tripped !!  So want to avoid all that faff,

Hope you are all OK there , we fly back on 25th June all being well and cannot wait to see our villa we purchased during the pandemic and have yet to see  ..LOL.... K...

...

Good luck.

We also had the washing machine/kettle thing.

In our case, the kitchen circuit wasn't up to supplying both appliances concurrently, so the kitchen trip went out. The discrimination on the trips was inadequate, so the whole house supply tripped (at the consumer unit, not at the meter). So our house wiring needs to be upgraded, not just our contracted potencia.

You will need an electrician to check out your wiring. To increase your potencia (your supply kw) you need an electrician's certificate (a Boletin) to confirm that your wiring is compliant with current standards and up to the job of handling a higher power draw. 

Spanish kettles are often only 800 watts, whereas they are usually around 2kw in the UK .... you can see why.

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