Hi I have bought a IPL hair remover from a British company and in the manual that the unit is configured for a 16A power supply. So it should be plugged into a 16A wall socket or a 20A kitchen appliance socket. Are these the sockets that we use as standard in the uk.
It’s telling me that it can be reset to 10A sockets if necessary but I don’t know what amp the uk standard power socks are.
Asking in fear of blowing the machine up by just plugging it into the wall. Thanks
Electrical – Are standard UK wall sockets a 16A power supply
electrical
Related Solutions
It depends on the power rating of the water heater. From an earlier question, I see that you live in China, so your electrical supply is 220 VAC/50 Hz. That means that the maximum power draw on a 10 A circuit is 2.2 kW (220 V * 10 A). In general, you should draw less to allow a safety margin, if the water heater uses more than about 2 kW you should get it rewired because you'll be coming close to the maximum rating of that circuit.
Note: I'm not even considering the presence of other appliances on that bathroom circuit (lights, electric razors, electric toothbrush chargers, etc.).
Based on the additional info in the question, if you only use the 1000 W and 1500 W modes on the heater, the existing wiring should be sufficient. If there's a way to prevent people from using the highest setting (like mounting the whole heater in a box where it can't be changed inadvertently), you should be OK.
When electrical appliances talk about Amperes it usually means
- how much max POWER it can OUTPUT
- or
- how much max POWER it can MEASURE
In your case, the spec actually means not to exceed the 16A limit.
So if you are monitoring a 10A socket that is well under the spec. So you will be fine.
As long as you do not exceed the 16A monitoring device limit you will be OK.
Usually in home applications.. you will(should) never actually have anything even close to that 16A limit. Power leads are typically marked 16A maximum to conform to electrical and home safety standards.
16A X 220Volt = 3500Watts
You will only see devices use more than that in Industrial situations and usually run of multiple phase supplies and massive core cables.
Related Topic
- Electrical – Does one wall socket share power between both ac plugs
- Electrical – Is it possible to detect from the power outlet if there would be current that needs grounding
- Electrical – How to use a 16A appliance in a UK 13A socket
- Electrical – ring main/RCD max amps – confused (UK)
- Electrical – Why did I need to switch several appliances in order to power the electric stove
- Electrical – put a higher amp fuse in a wall mounted fused connection unit
Best Answer
BS1363 is 13A max
The UK BS1363 plug system is 13A, maximum, per receptacle. Since your appliance does not support that setting, only 10A and 16A, the 10A setting is correct; furthermore, they were smart enough to fuse the plug properly (at 10A) -- this means that if you tried to set it to 16A, you'd eventually blow the fuse in the plug.