I ran the experiment! It was fascinating.
My meter shows somewhere around 0.5 Kw as a general baseline. I looked at it from time to time and generally saw things between 0.4 and 0.6.
I set up to video the meter while I intentionally ran appliances to see what it would tell me. Unfortunately, the meter cycles through several readings (not always showing the live Kw figure), and it only shows the Kw signal three times a minute. I realize this means I may not be able to see some sort of peak. Let's discuss that later.
During the first phase of the experiment, I ran:
- Clothes Washer
- Dryer
- Dishwasher
All those things may be running late at night, though I could reasonably avoid staring to charge until after laundry stops running. That said, the max Kw reading I saw during this phase was about
2-3 Kw.
During the next phase, I did a bit of a stress test. In addition to the Clothes Washer, Dryer and Dishwasher, I added:
- Two TVs and AV receivers
- Microwave
- Toaster Oven
- One bathroom ventilation fan
- A bunch of lights on around the house
I cannot imagine this level of simultaneous consumption happening ever, let alone when I might be charging a car. But that said, the maximum value I observed was just a shade under
7 Kw. The one thing I didn't do was force my hot water boiler (which serves my heating system) to go on.
Doing completely lame math: if the 7.4 Kw draw of the MINI Cooper is 31 Amps, then the 7 Kw max I saw would be about 29 Amps, for a total of 60 Amps. If a surge in electricity occurs for any one appliance, enough to throw it's own 20 Amp breaker, then we'd hit a max of 80 Amps for the Main, most likely less since we won't be charging the car, doing laundry, and cooking with the microwave and toaster oven all at the same time. (I have 100 Amp service for the whole house.)
I suppose I should run this by an electrician, though.
Anyone see a flaw in my experiment or logic?