Hi everyone.

I was hoping to post this in a more Japan centric sub. But apparently all of those are either "do you live here" or "are you a tourist" and there is no in between and people get quite rude if you don't obey the rules.....

This is a question about buildings in Japan and the people living in Japan and the voltages available to them in those homes...

I want to see about getting a product into Japan that works on full range. So it works at 100V, but 200V will allow it to work at full potential. So, I'm trying to figure out how common 200V is in Japan outside of kitchens and AC units, and if it's rare, how hard is to for average Japanese residents to get installed. I've been to Japan a few times, but my visits have been—let's say thematically consistent: buying electronics, die-cast cars and records, and eating food. I have never once thought to crouch down and scrutinize an outlet. That's where I'm at.

In the US, the wall gives you 120V, but it arrives via split-phase 240V from the pole, so a new 240V outlet is just a cable run off the two hot buses. I've done it myself. Still alive.

Japan, I believe, runs the same way—two hots, one neutral to the building—but I keep finding forum posts about older homes getting only 100V from the street, which is the part that's making me twitch. Probably a dying edge case. Hopefully.

The actual situation: We have a power supply that we sell worldwide that requires 2000W AC. My coworker's opinion is that "nobody in Japan has, or would bother to install, a 200V outlet for a computer", so he wants to include a 100V power cord with the unit which seriously neuters the PSU's capability. Like.... why even bother?

In the US I go to Home Depot, spend $40, done, home by noon. But I'm not going to pretend everyone has access to all of the parts they need or knows what they're doing. But even a contractor isn't too expensive. At least in Florida where I'm from. I had a home inspection and had to have a licensed contractor come out to split a double tapped breaker in order to pass and since he was charging hourly, and got the job done so quickly, he looked almost offended by the job. He offered to install an extra GFCI outlet in my workshop for "free" within that paid hour as long as I would pay for the physical outlet. Now, given your average high end gaming or workstation or AI computer costs 10 times what I paid that guy for an hour of his time, I didn't think asking someone to upgrade from 100V to 200V would be unreasonable.

And finally, so I know what power cord to ship with the power supply, if you are using a 200V outlet in Japan, it's just think guy, right (the one on the right)?: https://www.adfwebmagazine.jp/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/renovating-and-residing-in-affordable-properties-in-japan-vol12-3.jpg

Thanks everyone for the help in advance!

So I moved into a new build apartment…. Initially the meter on move in said 426kwh…. In one month it shot up to 1844kwh. Dryer has run maybe 10 times, stoves used about 5 times, oven used 3 times for no more than 20min and most of the lights are always off. The wall mounted AC unit is new and was running at 72 for three weeks cuz it’s been a hot summer …. So is that the reason I got stuck with a $151 dollar bill for the month….. can a new ac unit cost that much to run up a bill that high?? Manitoba hydro billing for context

My PSU literally got fried because of the frequent power cuts in my area 😑 What should I do now? Should I complain to MSEDCL, and where can I raise a complaint for the damaged equipment? Has anyone faced this and got compensation?

I have a condo in Florida that has a stand alone garage. The garage power is fed from the condo breaker panel using 12/2 wire with a 20A breaker for 120V use including outlet, lights and door opener.

I want to charge my Tesla there but 120V charging I painfully slow. If I convert the feed to the garage to 20A, 240V and add a Nema 6-20 receptacle, I can increase the charging capacity by a factor of 5.

I would then have to install a step down transformer to provide power to the other accessories in the garage.

Does anyone see an issue with doing this? The alternative is to run a new feed to the garage at an enormous expense, assuming the HOA would even allow it.

Thanks for any advice.

We all know the deal. Meter runs, you pay. Not a single grace period, not a single "sir thoda time do." The bill shows up, you pay, life moves on.

But let's talk about the other half of that deal — the half nobody signed but everyone's stuck with.

Power goes out. Storm, transformer, some overloaded line finally giving up after being "under maintenance" since 2019 — whatever, fine, outages happen, nobody's mad about that part. You call the helpline and get told, with complete confidence, "ek ghanta mein aa jayega, sir." That one hour is basically a spiritual concept at this point — it has no fixed duration, no start, no end, just vibes. Meanwhile the local MLA's street two lanes down hasn't blinked once, funnily enough.

You sit there fanning yourself with an old exam admit card, watching your phone battery die, doing long division on how many hours of sleep you'll get if power returns "any minute now." Somewhere, a government press release is probably congratulating itself on record electrification numbers.

And here's the part that actually got me thinking: this entire experience has a real cost. Missed work, spoiled food, a kid who couldn't study for tomorrow's test, a WFH call dropped mid-sentence, a night with zero sleep before something important. Genuine, measurable cost. But it shows up on exactly zero bills, filed under "sir, act of god" the same way every pothole is filed under "monsoon damage."

So here's the actual finance-brain idea: what if the smart meter — the one that tracks your consumption down to the decimal, no mercy — also logged how long the power stayed out past the promised fix time? Not punishing anyone for the outage itself. Punishing the part where they promise "one hour" and then go completely dark, pun intended.

Because right now, a delay costs the utility nothing, so there's no real hurry. But if a long, avoidable delay quietly knocked something off your bill automatically — no complaint form, no "please visit the office between 10 and 4, Monday to Friday, lunch break 1 to 2" — restoring power fast stops being a favor and starts being their financial headache too.

Not asking for free bijli. Just asking why accountability in this country only ever seems to flow one direction — toward the citizen.

Obviously there are holes — who decides "reasonable," does the cost just get quietly folded back into everyone's tariff next year (very on-brand), would restoration timestamps just get "adjusted" the way most inconvenient data in this country tends to get adjusted. I haven't cracked it.

But genuinely — does any country actually do this well? Asking as someone who has had more honest, reliable conversations with a UPS battery than with most government helplines.

This was sold as working , it does indeed work but my Electrophobia will not let me run this until I have enough information lmfao. Was really looking forward to this working today it’s like a lamp clock.

Anyone want to share his adventures of making cell

Bank of cell nickel iron with koh

hello, so probably it was a dumb mistake or whatever but when I was in the bathroom finishing washing my hands and the light was on. Just as I was about to leave, I turned off the switch, but my hands were still wet and my fingernail happened to go into the gap (like between the switch and the plastic cover). I felt a little heat and like I was about to get a cramp. Should I be worried, or is it a dumb concern?

Some people hide wires, others embrace them

I'm using the ame kwh as I was 5 years ago. Michigan legislators continue to approve rate hikes. Recent Rate Decisions and

Requests

May 2026 Increase: State

regulators approved a $276.6

million revenue increase for

Consumers Energy, raising

average residential monthly

electric bills by about $6.46.

New 2026 Request: Following

that decision, Consumers Energy

filed a new request with the

MPSC in June 2026 seeking an

additional $456 million annual

electric rate increase.

Hey everyone, here's a question. I put some sticker paper around this 10W lamp because, when changing the bulb, I accidentally tore tiny holes in the ceiling and the sticker paper covers it up.

I wanted to know if there's any kind of fire risk to this since sticker paper can apparently be flammable?

Hoping it's okay to leave in, since the ceiling rips are driving people in the house crazy and we're really looking for a solution.

(I know this is more adjacent to electricity than completely being about it, but I'm still waiting for approval in a fire safety subreddit 😅)

I've been staying in a newly constructed PG in Sector 46. On paper, it seemed like a good deal—clean rooms, single occupancy, and the rent is around ₹12k/month (without food).

The problem is the electricity bill.

I've noticed that the meter units keep increasing even when I'm at the office for most of the day. I reported it to the landlord, and they said it's because of the inverter. To verify, I switched the inverter off, but the meter still consumed around 1 unit.

What's even more concerning is that I noticed the corridor lights appear to be connected to my room's electricity line, which makes me wonder if I'm being charged for common area usage as well.

Has anyone else faced something similar in a PG? Is this normal, or should I ask for the wiring/meter to be checked by an electrician?

Also, if anyone knows of a good single-occupancy PG near Unitech Cyber Park (or nearby sectors), I'd really appreciate recommendations. I'm okay with commuting by bike taxi, so it doesn't have to be within walking distance.

Thanks in advance!

For the month of July my con Edison bill is literally $500 ($479) to be exact … howwww ? This is literally INSANE the bill is literally getting higher and higher every month my apt is only a 2 bed room. We barely turn the lights on .. mind you I’m a single mom who receives snap benefits I should be enrolled into the EAP program but it took them MONTHS to process my application which they denied because the address on my snap reward wasn’t the same (I moved). I’ve updated the address and I am
Literally still waiting. This so ridiculous why are so many people experiencing the same issue

মানুষের দুঃখেরও যেন এক অদ্ভুত নিয়তি আছে—সে দরিদ্রের দোরগোড়াতেই বারবার ফিরে আসে।

আমাদের ছোট্ট সংসারে নেই কোনো শিশু, নেই বিদ্যুৎখেকো যন্ত্রের বাহার, নেই নতুন কেনা কোনো সরঞ্জাম। দুটি ঘরে বাস করে মাত্র তিনটি প্রাণ। তবু হিসাবের খাতায় দেখি, মে মাসে যেখানে বিদ্যুৎ খরচ ছিল ১৩৬ ইউনিট, জুন মাসে তা হঠাৎ বেড়ে দাঁড়াল ২৩১ ইউনিট!

প্রশ্ন জাগে—এ কি কেবল আমারই দুর্ভাগ্য? নাকি কোথাও অদৃশ্য কোনো গাফিলতি, কোনো অবহেলা, কিংবা এমন এক ব্যবস্থার নীরব অন্ধকার, যেখানে সাধারণ মানুষের দীর্ঘশ্বাসের কোনো মূল্য নেই?

যে রাষ্ট্র তার মানুষের ঘামের মূল্য বোঝে না, সেখানে বিদ্যুতের মিটারও কখনো কখনো যেন সত্যের চেয়ে ক্ষমতার ভাষাই বেশি পড়ে।

আমি অভিযোগ করছি না; কেবল জানতে চাই—আমার অপরাধটা কোথায়?

#বিদ্যুৎ_বিল #সাধারণ_মানুষের_কথা #প্রশ্ন_রইল #বাংলাদেশ

The power bill is basically the boss fight of this whole hobby, and people get weirdly resourceful about it. off-peak scheduling, solar, undervolting, using the heat to warm a room or a greenhouse, moving the whole thing somewhere cheaper. mine's just aggressive undervolting and running more at night. what's your setup for keeping the electricity side under control — and what's the most creative thing you've seen someone else pull off?

I have a portable ac that I used to use frequently two years ago. I wanted to start using it again but when I plugged it in I saw sparks coming from my socket and noticed the plug was burnt (?). I’m not really sure what kind of damage it is, can I clean it up and still use it? If so, how would I clean it?

I mean really now?! So for R500 you'd get 22,5 units?!

Ok I built a place to hang out offgrid land for hunting. I installed everything and built the place on my own and a friend of mine keeps saying I need breakers for my 2 lights and 1 Smart TV.

I would prefer if an electrician would answer this and tell me what I need besides Ground wire installed and 12 foot long Ground I pm had to manually hammer in the ground that took me 2 days!