8476 electrics and wattages etc

I bought a laser printer and it hasn't tripped a breaker yet. Italian price was quite nice to. I wouldn't try running it a 1500 watt hair dryer and an electric oven all at the same time but otherwise it's fine.

TVs are normally much smaller power hogs once they are on. I think some have a bit of surge when turned on.

[quote=tessa myers;79402]................ i know our kettle is too high a wattage or something for our kitchen in italy and blows the lights every time. can uk appliances be adjusted to italian levels (whatever the term is)..............[/quote]

Its not the fact that your kettle is from the UK that blows the fuses in Italy -- its the fact that it is [probably] a 3kW kettle and that's why your 3kW supply trips out each time you use it - any UK appliance can be used in Italy - just remember that if you have a 3kW supply in your place [that's the usual amount] then you can only run about 13 amps of equipment at any one time.

This means that if you use the washing machine - there's not a lot else you can switch on - similarly with the dishwasher or [electric] oven. 3 females using hair dryers will probably trip the supply out [they did at our place]

[low energy light bulbs do reduce your power usage - its not a lot but it helps]

Most 3KW supplies will run at 3.3kW for a short while.

You can upgrade your supply to 6kW or more - but is it really worth it?

found a couple of printer specs
power consumption less that 15 watts, thats 1/4 the power of a normal light bulb.
hope this is useful

[B]Epson Stylus DX8450 Printer [/B]

Electrical specification
Power consumption
[U]Approx. 12W (stand-alone copying, ISO10561 letter pattern)[/U]Approx. 3W (sleep mode)
Energy Star qualified printer

Voltage
AC 220-240V

[B]Canon PIXMA iP4500[/B]

Power Source AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz
Power Consumption Standby: Approx. 1.2W
Off: Approx. 1.0W
[U]Printing: 13.0W¹ [/U]

Also, by all means bring your TV over, but unless there you can watch a digital signal with it (eg Freeview, integrated digital tuner, Satellite decoder, etc), you will only be able to see the picture but no sound.

As was mentioned, you can upgrade your supply to 6Kw, but you are charged a premium for this, although i don't know exactly how much.

thanks all. regarding the telly - the other half has just bought a big flat screen thing that apparently does magic so i would hate for him to not be able to bring it. Saying that he'd probably be content to watch the picture with no sound. Probably wishes he could do the same with me!!:

o i forgot to say - libero i see you are just down the road from us? we are / will be in colledimezzo. have been intending to visit the castle at roccacasalenga for ages but last time we were over it was too misty and i was told (by the othere half who wanted to stay in the warm bar) that i wouldn't be able to see anything!

[quote=Italiargh;79408]Also, by all means bring your TV over, but unless there you can watch a digital signal with it (eg Freeview, integrated digital tuner, Satellite decoder, etc), you will only be able to see the picture but no sound.

As was mentioned, you can upgrade your supply to 6Kw, but you are charged a premium for this, although i don't know exactly how much.[/quote]

That seems to be the same with a UK Playstation plugged into an Italian TV. No idea why, but made for one very unhappy son a couple of holidays ago!

[quote=tessa myers;79402]I don't know if this is the right place for this query but if I want to buy a printer to go with my laptop which i will take to italy when we move in february, would i be better to buy a printer in italy? i know our kettle is too high a wattage or something for our kitchen in italy and blows the lights every time. can uk appliances be adjusted to italian levels (whatever the term is) r would i be better to buy as much as possible in italy. also can i bring my tv or will it cause a blackout too[/quote]

All UK appliances should work in Italy and most computer equipment (including printers) is particularly tolerant of voltage because they use a type of power supply referred to as "switched mode" which means that they can usually operate rom any voltage in the range 100-250 volts.

Voltage is supposed to be harmonised across Europe at 230 Volts nominal, but due to the usual political fudging what actually happened was that the EU widened the range of permitted nominal voltages so that the UK can still operate on 240V the rest of Europe on 230V, but all equipment must work safely on either voltage.

The only potential problems are some older TVs, some Freeview set top boxes, and older appliances which require 240V nominal.

The other thing to watch out for is that UK houses get a much higher powered supply than Italian houses. Most italians choose a 3kW supply to save money, this means that it's impossible to use electric heaters, kettles, immersion heaters, dishwashers, electric ovens and hobs, microwaves etc.

Changing to a 6kW supply is a good idea if you can afford it.

Oh, and buying IT equipment in Italy isn't sensible, because the prices are higher than in the UK. Also if buying a printer with the intention of leaving it in Italy unused for long periods try to find one that will tolerate this sort of use. In general lasers don't like the damp, inkjets can clog and leak. We keep a comparatively old HP Deskjet in Italy because it has cartridges with a print head built in. If the jets do clog after standing or a month or two I can change the print cartridge and fix the problem.

You shouldn't have a problem with any home use IT equipment over here to be honest. We moved our entire business here and that involves a lot of high-end Computer/photography gear. It's also surprising what you can find online over here: a small epson inkjet bought just this week was actually cheaper here than the same model anywhere in the UK.

We don't find the 3kW supply a problem at all. I was convinced that it would be a complete nightmare but you just learn to use electricity differently and you also appreciate much more exactly watt :) you're using. As a result our electricity bill for Oct-Nov (61 days) was just Eur 57 inc IVA - we were at home most of the time and one computer is on almost all day that we're in. We have an electric oven, kettle, veg steamer, washing machine, dyson hoover & microwave and we recharge a lot of batteries for the purpose of our photography business. It's not all bad :)

Actually I made a mistake in my haste to dig out my last bill for that post. The actual bill for those 61 days was Eur 38 inc IVA - the rest was a carried forward bill!