Can't be sure but I'm guessing the problems with amperage only really apply to those countries running 110v domestic supplies.  So UK Aus. and NZ will probably hang in there a bit longer.  1-2 Kw is pretty average for old fashioned plug in electric heaters in the UK.  The general warning about not having too many appliances in one socket still applied.   UK domestic plugs have built in fuses from 3 - 13amp so your plug fuse should go before the house wiring.

"If this is true there will be a huge shift to centralized mining facilities this year sometime which really worries me.

I really don't see how Bitcoin can survive centralized mining"

Yep i'm looking at quite a bit of second hand stuff people are attempting to dump on TradeMe (NZ Ebay equivalent) most of it being offered at stupid prices that you'd be mad to pay. The price of second hand gear doesn't seem to take into account the fact that you can't make any money out of it. 

It may be that a few enthusiastic soles will keep low cost stuff running at a continual loss. I'll probably keep my butterfly labs 25gh machine running through into winter (southern hemisphere) at which point it might just be a self subsidising room heater for a few months.

What's needed to keep a balance of mining safely neutral is more low cost high efficiency miners and the introduction of transaction charges so even the little guys get enough reward to encourage them to stay plugged in? 

OK so I've got a 25Ghash butterfly labs machine up and running minepeon on a raspberry Pi.  Entry level proof of concept for a newbie if you like. 

Looking around at online calculators it looks like there's no point at all in putting any further money into any of the mining gear available new, pre-order otherwise.  Short of meteoric rises in bitcoin value there doesn't appear to anyway of getting your money back.

Do I understand correctly that if people stop making money and just switch off their machines that the level of difficulty would drop to ensure transactions are still processed.

What's the story are people pre-ordering new gear and crossing their fingers?  Right now the exchange rate seems very stable.

Look forward to some informed replies or specultation.

Cheers