MAX current from AC single phase

[mail2vasu2004]

HI,

What is the maximum current that i can draw from the single phase AC line, across the globe?


Regards'
Vasu

[davidsrsb]

It depends...
At what supply voltage?
Plugged or fixed wiring?

[Johno]

Steady state depends on your service fuses - 15A or more at 240Vac.

I was switch gear designer in the 80's and working out the magnitude of fault currents that a circuit breaker has to interupt is of serious interest. Used an empirical approach with a huge SCR triggered on at voltage peaks to apply a quarter cycle short circuit. Note that this technique rarely tripped any circuit breakers because it was over before the breakers had time to react. Peak currents were measured around 500A for domestic and 5000A at high power industrial services (from memory). Most sites were much smaller indicating a higher average characteristic grid impedance. Got really messy with installations having bulk power factor correction networks (ie big capacitance).

120Vac, with its lower characteristic Z, will give higher peaks.

[DigitalJunkie]

In the US,120Vac 15A is common for each lighting/outlet branch,IME. Some might be 20Amp.

[metalsculptor]

That all depends on what service is installed, In Australia 10A is standard domestic but the service is protected by a 20A circuit breaker, 15A and 20A domestic outlets are available and are often used for air conditioning.* Commercial and industrial single phase outlets follow the pattern of 3 phase outlets over here and come in similar ratings, 20A and 32A are common.

13A is standard in Great Britain.

[Mark.Clappers]

In the Netherlands the standard is 230VAC @ 16A for normal outlets.

Also possible: 230VAC @ 6A and 10A (not used anymore, but can be found in older installations).

Also possible: 2x 16A @ 230VAC (4 pin contact), 3 phase 230VAC (5 pin contact) @ 16A, 32A or 63A (used for electric cooking, AC, electric motors, ..)

[AndrewT]

My MCBs are rated at 5kA or 10kA.
That is the maximum current at 240Vac they can break.

[Cristi]

In Romania the maximum available current outlets are 16A. In China, also 16A for AC units. in the place where i live i have 63A main breaker plus another 8 10A, 16A and 20A fuses for lighting general purpose Outlets and AC Outlets. and i just added a 50A breaker and 10mm2 wires for my smps test room

[Mooly]

In the UK a 100 amps is a typical maximum for a domestic property or around 24kw in "old money".

Being all electric we have to be careful when the storage heaters are all on (worst case 11.9kw) as the shower will add another 10.7kw not leaving much over

[AndrewT]

You will never notice the power used by ClassA. And if you listen "off peak", you get heat and music at cheap rate !