OP, do you use the cooking hobs a lot? If not, you could go with individual hobs and cut down that way by installing 2 or three rather than having 4. I suppose that the right induction cooktop with three hobs might do power sharing between the hobs and surely would be a 30 amp installation. I appreciate the advantages of all the hob types. If I can ever choose my equipment without interference I'd have 1 big gas hob, one induction and 1 small electrical resistance hob.

Ron, "Inductions are power pigs." Certainly not compared to comparable electrical resistance cooktops and ranges. Electric cooktops all require either 30 or 40-amp circuits. Induction will end up using less power because of higher efficiency. Of course they must be installed for full power operation and the calculation must reflect that.

The comment wasn't based on efficiency. It is based on the fact that the current line of induction cooktops all tend to require 50A@240 for the 5 hob ones (most common). 40A for the 4 hob ones.

evdryst, I tried to figure out what you were talking about. You gave many numbers without identifying what they were. For example, when your electrician said you were at 130 when you need to be at 100. Volts? I don't know of any appliances which need 100 Volts (except in Japan, where 100 is standard). 130 volts is a little high, but not unusual.

Hi mtvhike, our supply is 100 amps, and when the electrician does his calculations for all the new stuff I want to put in, it adds up to 130. So according to him I have to scale down or choose less appliances.

But I'm not sure I trust his calculations.

I hope that makes more sense :)

Yes, it does make sense; thanks for clarifying things for me. I think 100 Amps would be enough only if you don't have any power-hungry appliances, such as an electric stove, electric hot water heater, central air conditioning, etc. For awhile, I had 60 Amp service and I installed a dual-fuel range (electric oven and gas cooktop). The oven by itself required a 50A circuit, which I put in, but never had a problem (probably because I never used the self-cleaning oven feature). However, I was uncomfortable with this so I had my service upgraded to 200 Amps.

mtvhike, my question was regarding the correctness of my electrician's calculations, specifically regarding the 5000 for the gas dryer, and how my cooking appliances will be calculated.

I think you're right to question 5000 VA for the gas dryer. I mean, you have a gas dryer so you don't have to use so much electricity! 5000 VA translates to about 40 Amps at 120 Volts, and I can't think of any kind of igniter which draws that much current.

5000 VA is more than what a traditional electric dryer consumes. They're usually under 4000VA.

I can speculate as well as anybody else. But what does the CODE say? Thanks in advance.

The code says you figure out what the appliance actually uses (based on the dataplate or other specifications) not relying on some made up bullpoop about ignitors. It allows a 75% reduction for intermittent use. In fact, I suspect the code allows you to assume that it's not more than 1500 VA. When it talks about dryers, it only has special cases for ELECTRIC driers. The code says for ELECTRIC DRYERS you can either assuem 5000 watts or you can use the actual dataplate value.