Appliance Juggling

I used to take things for granted. Like my ability to run any appliance in my home whenever I wanted to.

Not any more!

Living in an apartment in San Donato Milanese, Italy has cured me of that. During the winter, we basically had three major appliances - the washer/dryer combo, the oven, and the dishwasher. We quickly discovered that we could run only one major appliance at a time. If we tried to run two at the same time, we would blow the circuit. This would plunge our whole apartment into darkness until someone (usually Scott) could be sent to the electricity room outside the apartment building to flip the breaker. Fun times.

Once we figured the system out, it was pretty easy to juggle appliances when it was cold outside. The radiators didn't interfere with anything else, so it was easy enough to plan my day around my three major appliances. I tried to do my laundry during the morning and early afternoon. Not always an easy task since a cycle could last almost 3 hours, but with just three of us it was usually doable. I would bake (if I wanted to) in the early evening. And I would run the dishwasher when we went to bed.

But now it's getting hot here (high 80s). Air conditioning weather. We have 4 individual units in our apartment - one in the living room and one in each of the 3 bedrooms. We have discovered that (fortunately) we can run at least two A/C units at the same time. We haven't tried more than that. But we can't run any of the other big three when we're running the A/C.

So I have to juggle and plan.

Early morning, after Robert and Scott leave, I'll do some laundry. Or I'll run the dishwasher if I need to. I can't run it at night anymore, because I can't sleep when I get hot, so I need the A/C on in my bedroom. I find myself doing laundry every other day so I can keep the loads small and get it done before about 2:00. By that time it's getting pretty warm in the apartment. We aren't as lucky as some of the other Americans we know here - we don't have good cross ventilation in our apartment. Opening the windows just lets the warm air in, it doesn't create any sort of breeze.

But if I want to bake cookies or something for dinner, that throws a monkey wrench in all my plans! I usually don't get around to baking until later in the afternoon, which is not the best time to be turning off the A/C. But that's what I have to do. I finish up my baking as quickly as possible so I can turn the A/C back on.

And it's not just me. Most of the other American woman I've talked to have the same problem we do. One lady can't even run her blow dryer if something else is on! The problem is that the apartment owners have four different options when it comes to electrical breakers. One offers unlimited electrical use - what we have in the U.S. Then there are three levels they can choose from, each allowing varying amounts of electricity into the house. The lower the level you choose, the cheaper your rate. Many people, including our landlord (who pays the bill although the cost is passed on to Robert's company) choose the 2nd level. And most Italians are fine with that. Of course, many of them don't have dryers, or air conditioners, or even dishwashers.

But I don't live like that. I have all of those appliances, because to me they are part of every day normal life. And I don't like having to juggle my appliance usage.

Iit's a pain in the patootie!