Current Exchange

Here's the counter of our new kitchen in Shanghai... mixer, rotisserie, coffeemaker... but what kind of appliances are those beige boxes sitting between them?

One of the many small challenges of moving to China is the difference in AC current. US current runs at 110 volts. China current runs at about double this -- 220 volts. As a result, plugging a standard US appliance into a Chinese electrical outlet fries it within seconds and then blows the circuit breaker in the house... a fact I (Eric) encountered for the first time when I plugged in Lauren's alarm clock the first night I stayed in the house and lost all my power (thankfully, Emerald staff came at 1am to turn me back on). The alarm clock was utterly fried (about which more later).

To remedy this situation, you can buy electrical converters -- boxes that convert 220v current into 110v current. These are available at places like Carrefour and B&Q. The trick is that they come in different ratings -- smaller ones rated for 40 watts, larger ones rated for 100 or 150 watts... you can plug a power strip into one and then plug several appliances into the power strip, but if the total watts drawn by the appliances plugged into the converter exceed the rating of that converter... you blow the converter (as we found out when we plugged Lauren's computer system into a 40w converter).

In this situation you have to become a quick expert on wattage and voltage and secure the right boxes that will power your appliances. When the sea shipment arrived I learned that the Kitchenaid pulled a comparatively mild 325 watts but the heat-producing applicances -- the coffeemaker and the rotisserie -- pulled 900 and 1250 watts respectively. All of these were far beyond the capacity of the sleek little Carrefour and B&Q converters -- so we were stumped for a while.

On a hunch Lauren went to the sketchy electronics bazaar near my office and found someone who said he'd source us one of the higher-capacity models. Lauren sent me back to verify and I found she had negotiated for a 500 watt model, good for the Kitchenaid but useless for my morning caffeine or a rack of lamb. I asked him for something bigger... and this is what we got: ladies and gentlemen, the 1500 watt converter!

(The writing on top notes that you can't operate the coffeemaker and the rotisserie at the same time; I'd hate to see 1500 watts of power shorting out....)