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Well, looks like smart meters started appearing in US slightly later than e.g. here in Finland, around 2006-2007, so I'm not sure that explains the difference. Could be explained by lower mobile network coverage in U.S., I guess.

US statistic: https://www.statista.com/statistics/676472/number-of-smart-m...

In 2005 in Finland about 7% of households had smart meters, with 80%+ coverage mandated by 2013 and actual coverage of 99.6% of under-63A meters in 2016 (Finnish sources: https://www.vttresearch.com/sites/default/files/julkaisut/mu... https://tem.fi/documents/1410877/3481825/AMR+2.0+loppuraport...).




What’s special about 63A meters? That’s low, but I guess nobody has electric heat/AC. I guess they’re the ones that can be installed indoors?


3x 63A is the reasonable maximum a normal consumer would want at their house. Normal houses are around 3x 32A.

Everything over that is a commercial building and they get billed with different rules and measurements due to the equipment they tend to have. Something about three phase engines and power phases in commercial lighting. I zoned out during those meetings :D


Finland has 230V, so if you're from the US with 110V the low current rating might be confusing ;-) I'd also guess that in Finland they also run three phases into each house/unit (we do in Germany), meaning that's 3*63A = 189A. (Or just shy of 400A on a 110V grid). For us that's the default grid connection you get for your house.

As for your guess: That's just a cultural thing I suppose. I've never seen outdoor meters around here.


The US is 240 volt for power purposes. The 120 volt thing is just dividing that in half - the meters don't measure that. These days most US houses get 200 amp service, but in the past 30, 60, and 100 were all common (100 is still done). I know of a few houses with more than that, but those are not normal.


If you’re adding together the phases like that, European houses are 400V instead of 230V (and yeah you can get 400V ovens etc)


3 phase is different from us split phase. In the us that would be 404 volts (or about that, I don't work with it just know it exists) or 208 volt if you that the split phase in 3 phase.

Anyway the point is 3 phase is not added in the same way as split phase. I think you know that, but I'm sure someone else doesn't.


Naw, Canadian. Cool to have 3ph at home (even without the #1 thing that fails here because we don’t have 3ph: a/c (capacitors)), but why’s your industrial supply just 400V instead of a soup of 347V, 480V and 600V?




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