"CW" wrote in message
...
Do they have a lot of electrical fires?

Not so many as you might think.. the average Korean household is not like
the average US household. Most Koreans use very few electrical appliances
(at least very few at a time.. power is VERY expensive here). Most houses
have just a few lights, a stereo, a TV and some fans. Some have A/C, maybe
an electric rice cooker.. They don't have electric stoves, nor electric
clothes dryers (or gas ones either, for the most part). Cooking is done
with LPG, heating and hot water with (the same) small oil-fired boiler.
There is no on-demand hot water. You push a button on your heating
thermostat and wait about 10 minutes to get hot water for dishes or a
shower. In addition, almost all lighting is fluorescent.. very efficient,
but also very noisy (both audibly because of cheaply made ballasts, and RF
wise)..

Also, they can get away to a certain extent with the smaller wiring because
their supply voltage is 220V/60Hz. This means half the amperage for the
same amount of power as with 120 V systems. Step-down autotransformers are
sold (primarily to GI's) to obtain 110-120 Volts for running US equipment.
In our home, we have installed specially made isolation step-down
transformers so that we could install a system with a neutral and ground
(mainly so we could use our UPS's). The Korean system has no ground. It
also has no neutral.. both wires are hot and floating (you can be shocked
touching either wire and anything that is remotely connected to Earth). This
makes it very interesting to work with.. e.g. changing a light fixture,
switch or outlet.. since the switches and breakers switch only one side of
the line...