Electricity when you Travel

You need to keep three things in mind if you travel with doodads that require electricity to make them doo their dad: Voltage, Watts, and connectors.


Voltage: All of Europe, including Budape
st, uses 220 volts pouring out of the wall outlets wherever you go.  The USA use 110.  Plug an American appliance into a European outlet and, at best, it will zoom along at double-time until it burns out and collapses.  At worst, it will spring into flames.


Watts:  Pretty much the entire world was wired for electricity at a time when no one anticipated toasters, space heaters, air conditioners, curling irons, convection ovens. 
And so there simply isn’t really enough in the grid to go around (that’s why NYC has brown-outs in the summer, as does Budapest).  Budapest, at the heart of a planned economy when the infrastructure was most recently laid down, applied a rigid allocation of juice to every apartment, large or small.  Those allocations still hold sway and one can’t simply order up another line.  As a result, it can be easy to blow a circuit breaker if everything is on at peak load.


Separately, if you are traveling with doodads that require conversion, the converters all are rated at a specific number of watts.  They simply won’t work, or will blow an internal fuse, or will catcvh fire if you try to pull more juice gthrough them than they are rated to handle.


Connectors: The USA uses one sort of connector, the UK another, and continental Europe uses a variety of similar but annoyingly just-different-enough connectors at their wall outlets to make travel between countries a drag.




We try to minimize the hassle for you, but you have to pay attention to the signs and understand the theory or you may find yourself standing in the midst of a pile of cinders.


Each of our apartments has a clearly marked beige outlet strip providing 200 watts of USA-style 110 voltage.  If you have devices that require 110, and if they draw a total of 200 watts or less, you can plug them in just as though you were at home.  In addition, if you have some sort of behemoth that requires more than 200 watts, we generally have a (very heavy) 1000 watt transformer available stashed somewhere in the apartment, but it’s usually not worth lugging it out and dragging it to where you want to curl your tresses.  We do provide a hair dryer in each apartment, as well as coffee makers and water boilers and most things we can think of.  If you are really committed to bringing a high-wattage device to Europe, we strongly recommend that you find one that operates on dual voltage.


Each also has outlet strips that accommodate standard European 220-volt devices, generally with the Euro Schuko-style connectors (recessed twin circular tongs with a ground tab on its perimeter.  We also try to provide a clearly marked black power strip that affords European voltage but that accommodates USA-style (and almost all other) connectors.  It uses a unique universal plug system that somehow manages to accept almost anything.


We also provide adapters for individual connectors if you have a device that works with 220 but has a USA style connector at the end (true of almost all comopuyter power supplies these days and many other electronic devices like cell phone charges and digital camera docks; you have to read the tiny, sometimes embossed, print on the power supply for your device; if it is universal -- accommodating 110-240 volts, you are best served plugging it into a 220 outlet, not the beige 110 power strip.  These widgets sometimes get confused if asked to adapt to already-adapted-to power sources.


We send out detailed information, and you can see much more at our EverythingBudapest.com website.