US-EU Voltage Differences

Higher voltage allows for lower amperage for given watts / more wattage at a given amper limit. The higher the amperage, the larger the wires need to be to avoid excess heat. In the US, standard household circuits are rated for 15 or 20 amps, in the EU 10 and 16 are common. So, you can expect a 3.5kW AC unit to work without problems in the EU while getting anything more than 2kW in North America is a serious headache.

The majority of US homes have 240 available, it just isn't used for most outlets. The bigger issue might be the amp rating of older grid connections.

If you're on 110V you should care about the current limits

Remember that the US is 110 v so a has less capacity to the 240v or the hosts house wiring was old.

For those confused like me, this conversation is about US circuits. On a typical European 230V 16A circuit, it's not a problem.

American mains are single (split) phase 240v, your country's are likely 3 phase 240v. Your appliances are likely hooked to 3 phases simultaneously with a 20A breaker so they can get 12kW, American 20A hookup is only good for 4 kW (240x20x0.85 because you cannot draw more than 85% of max power continuously by code).

In the US houses are supplied with 240V split phase. So most outlets are 120V from one of the two parts of the same phase. There are some outlets (e.g., for a drier) that use the whole 240V and with those getting high amps is also easy because US homes also usually have higher total power supplied than in Europe and they have standardized plugs that mean higher amps are available (without going to the industrial plugs we use in Europe). But if all you have is a pre-existing 120V outlet then it&#

Appliances, like electric range, that need higher power have dedicated 240V circuits. My understanding is that 240V circuits use thicker cable because they usually also have higher current. But it is possible to convert 120V to 240V if only one device, sometimes done for imported electric kettles.

You’d probably need to do this with an AC-DC-AC transformer to also get the circuit converted to the 50hz cycle European power systems use, but it’d just be a waste because of the power losses involved (not to mention the expense of the transformers). Also, a typical 15A circuit in a home will handle ~1.8kw of sustained load, so as long as you can dedicate a circuit to such a rig, you’d be fine.

American outlets are 15 or 20 Amps, AFAIK.