> And having only one phase was a problem considering we wanted an induction stove.

Why's it an issue? 230V 1 phase works fine for induction stoves unless you have a lot of burners (like 6~8) and / or very large diameters.

It was not enough for the stove he had already selected.

It has 5 zones, but it also has a boost setting that boils a pan of water quicker than our electric kettle does. And those electric kettles aren't that far below what a regular group can take, so heating more than one pan would likely blow a fuse.

And we don't want our cooking experience crippled for many years to come due to a stupid construction mistake in our house. Better just fix it right away.

Fair enough.

Countries that have historically relied on gas or other such power sources for heating and stoves most likely have single phase for homes. You're more likely to get three phase in countries where electrical stoves, ovens, and even house heating are more common (Germany being the most obvious example).

Well, my experience is Netherland, where we have 3-phase current, gas stoves, gas heating, and electrical ovens. And people are increasingly switching to induction stoves simply because they can and induction is nice.

When I was a kid in the 1970s, we did have a gas oven, but soon replaced it with an electrical oven that still had a gas stove on top. The simple fact is that electrical ovens are safer and more practical than gas ovens, while gas stoves were more practical than electrical stoves before induction stoves became available.

So having access to both 3-phase current and gas, we make our choices based on what's convenient rather than on what we're forced to use.

> You're more likely to get three phase in countries where electrical stoves, ovens, and even house heating are more common (Germany being the most obvious example).

As I wrote in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20799176, in Germany, electrical house heating is very uncommon.

> electrical stoves, ovens, and even house heating are more common

My point is that it's still more common than other countries, especially south and east of Germany, as I made very clear above (that even was there to help make the point). And in this comment I didn't forget to mention electric stoves and ovens which are very much a common thing. According to the spec my stove (radiant) and oven together top up at 9.6KW usable, not just adding numbers for each burner. That's double or triple what you'd get out of any regular 240V wiring (usually ~2.5KW/10A, sometimes ~3.6KW/15A, haven't seen 4KW 240V sockets so far). With an induction stove you could go lower overall but almost all electric ovens out there are in the 3-3.5KW range. I imagine it's the reason every single house I lived in had 380V.