Power supply 7kw?

If it really has a 7kw supply, consider yourself lucky.

7kw might seem very low to a Brit, but here 7kw is very good.

Many homes have 3.4kw or 5.5kw.

We learn to live within our capacities.

In the UK, our hob alone drew over 7kw. 

Many people here use gas (butane or propane) or oil for hot water/heating, or log/pellet burners for heating. 

It is possible, in some locations, to upgrade. We have 3.4kw and we plan to upgrade to 5.5kw next year. To gain the necessary certification, we will need to have our house re-wired. We have learnt which appliances we can run concurrently, and which ones we can't. 

And it will be worth every penny  .... 

We only have 3.4 in a 4 bed villa although there are usually only two of us here and like Kelvin, we have learnt to adapt. 
We are on the night tariff which is like the old Economy 7 in the UK so in winter we have cheaper electric between 10 pm and 12 mid-day and in summer from 11 pm to 1 pm. The dishwasher goes on timer for the early hours and I put a wash on in the evening as soon as the cheap rate kicks in so it's ready to be put out in the morning and plenty of time for a few more washes if needed. We also have the pool pump running overnight. I've only tripped it once when I had the washing machine and the oven on and then tried to turn the kettle on. I've got no intention of increasing my supply but then I have bottled gas central heating with a combi boiler so we don't have electric water heaters to contend with and we have ceiling fans with no air conditioning.
From what I understand, if you want to increase it they send an electrician round to test the system to see if it is safe and if it is they issue a bolétin (?) to confirm this and you can go ahead. If it is not safe I imagine you have to do what Kelvin plans and have it rewired or look for alternatives. I think the roof top solar water heaters are quite popular so I assume they are cost-effective but very few people have full solar power as the cost is prohibitive.
As others have said, 7 is higher than a lot of us have so if it is tripping out regularly with no obvious overload reason, it could be that there is another issue. Wiring in a lot of properties leaves a lot to be desired, we found some outside power sockets were connected with a junction box showing bare wires just buried in the earth and every time it rained we had problems. At one point I could smell burning indoors but couldn't work out where it was coming from and then when we took down a ceiling in one of the bedrooms we found two wires twisted together, again with bare wires exposed, with tell-tale scorch marks. There was no earth either.
Our villa does not appear to have been professionally built and we reckon that the original owner we purchased from had probably built it themselves with help from family members (render and tiles cover so many sins) and then extended it with even less skill.There was no boletin  but we bought it as a refurb so we had planned to strip it out and start again with all relevant licences.
You don't say who told you that the only option was solar, was this your supplier during a full check of the system? Is there anything you can think of that is putting strain on the system? Have you had the system tested yet? I'm only asking because the usual thing is upgrading from 3.4 to 5.5 and I've not seen any posts with people having problems with 7. I'm obviously no electrician but something doesn't seem right.
We do have some forum members who have extensive knowledge on this so hopefully one of them will reply to you.

Edit. Sorry, I meant to reply to the OP.

Thank you for the reply... I should have said I have little to no knowledge of electricity! It was a check from a potential builder who said “you only have a 7 kw supply, so it would be best to install solar”. 

I bet he did!!!!

When we were looking at houses, we rejected one that had a 15 amp breaker in the outside meter box (equates to 3.4kw).

The house we bought had a fairly modern 40 amp consumer unit (equates to 9kw).

The 9kw house we bought turned out to have a 3.4kw contracted capacity and the incoming supply and internal wiring is only rated for 3.4kw.

So - in my case - a little knowledge wasn't much help !

You are not alone ....

If reassurance is needed .... we run our house much like Cheryl (above), including the pool pump, but we also run 2 a/c units. We have to be careful though. We gave up on the electric kettle. We have a whistling kettle on the gas hob.

You will be fine I have 5.5 kw not had a problem this is a holiday home but aircon and kettle put on same time no issues 

Mack

Hi Rich, I hope you are enjoying the Forum and finding the information of good use.

Not sure if you have yet read any of the section titled 'Jim's Guides' . They are a mine of great info on all things concerning Living and Holidaymaking in Spain. Part of the Guides refer to Electrical Supplies and Utility Contracts etc.

In direct reference to your question, however, I can only state that you would need to make an estimate of Electrical equipment within your property likely to be in use at any one time. You would then need to add up the KW rating of each one, which in the case of Electrical Appliances can usually be found on a rating plate somewhere on the Appliance casing. 

When you have this total KW, ( in Killowatts)  it will give an indication of the minimum Capacity you will require from your Electricity Company.

The recommendation you have from your builder can then be verified.

Hope that helps,

LeckyLes 

Once you've received your first bill, I recommend that you register for online access with Iberdrola Distribution.

Having done that, you can view a nice graph of your consumption and see what your peak usage is. You might then be able to reduce the contracted power, and save quite a bit of money on the standing charges:

https://www.costablancaforum.com/area/almorad%C3%AD-spain-11/utilities-electric-gas-water-recommendations-advice-in-almorad%C3%AD-29/jims-guide-smart-meters-and-iberdrola-distribution-40197/