Technology

Where I live, there is a pole fuse, which is, as the name implies, on the pole, and only a linesman can change it.

Massive pain in the ass if that pops.

In my experience people get by with a 3x25A (17 kW available, matches approximately a 70A service in the US)

Wow, how do you do that?

Of course over-provisioning is a thing but that’s crazy. Maybe you have much smaller appliances or assume much lower usage, but 70a basically assumes 2 major appliances at a time, using close to max load, and with nothing else turned on.

Typical 240v major appliances

• level 2 EV charger: 50a
• stove: 50a
• central ac: 40a
• dryer: 40a
• heat pump: 50a+
• water heater: 50a

Of course you won’t use them all at once and they won’t usually be drawing their full rated load but I would not want to deal with being limited to one at a time so I can also turn on the lights or use the microwave

That can theoretically draw 280a, before you even count things like lights and small appliances. If you added up all possible circuits, you may be hitting 1000a theoretical in a modern house. I’m comfortable that My 200a service will handle any combination I might use, but 70a definitely not

By contrast I once lived in an apartment with 60a service. It did not have most of these large appliances but I frequently tripped the main with combinations like stove + window ac + microwave + lights

why are people so afraid of tripping the main breaker?

Not everyone know as much as electricity as you, I think is natural to be afraid of something you not know so much and that potentially can burn your house.

The way that it works in most countries is that the breakers are per circuit in your wall. The breakers trip in order to prevent that single circuit from overheating and starting a fire in your walls.

Let’s say you have a wire that’s rated for 16amps. More than that and it becomes a fire risk just threw overheating. @230v that gives you 3680w per circuit.

If you have your industrial microwave, water heater, and car charger all going at the same time on that same circuit. This will draw way more than 3680w and thus would go over that 16a limit.

The breakers trips once you go over that 16a limit for safety. It’s a good thing. This all being said no sane electrician would put those three things on the same circuit. lol.

Circuit breakers are actually what enable you to safely over provision. Without them fires would just be a matter of time.

I know it works this way in the U.S. and Germany at least.

Car specific maybe? I was able to charge at -30C outside from a 120V outlet last winter.