Power (watts) is V x I
Grendel I'm local to you and also an electrician, pop it round and I will check it out for you.
As for using it you will need to get a stepdown transformer, the yellow ones you get from the hire shops can do but that is a bit of an overkill ;-)
Seriously though unless it has a voltage selector switch it will need some work to make it usable in the UK.
If
THIS is the unit you have then it's a very simple bit of kit but not very safe as it is just a heater element and lead no on/off switch or safety thermostat going by the images.
Also in the UK the body of the unit needs to be earthed unless the element unit is double insulated. This is normally shown somewhere as a square within a square.
The good side of this all you would need to do is replace the element to a 240v unit just making sure it's the correct wattage but earth protection or possible lack of is a concern.
As for tripping the electrics, if you had wired it wrong swapping phase and neutral would not matter, unless there is some protection circuit or you actually wired the unit to the earth pin on the plug.
Now for voltage, current and watts
The unit is rated at 1500w @ 120v this means that it has a current rating of 12.5A now divide voltage by amps to give a resistance of 9.6ohm
Now we can look at the UK standard, in the UK we have been reducing our voltage over the years and the wiring regulations now state we have a nominal voltage of 230v and not 240v as we used to have (originally it had been as high as 250v).
The reduction in voltage is to save power and to set more of a standard. So for this depending on how close you are to a transformer lets for arguments sake say you are still using 240v.
Ok so 9.6 ohm at 240v will give you a current rating of 25A now this then actually makes the heater element of your smoker well and truely smoke at a whopping 6000w
similar to running a couple of high powered kettles.
I would say it's very likely you have trashed the elment unless there was protection built into the element.
Taking out the house electrics two possible causes the sudden in-rush or power has tripped the RCD or the element is trashed and has shorted stright to earth (if there is an earth) due to having so much current shoved through it.
You would hope the fuse in the plug would blow but quite often the MCB or RCD in the house will go first as they will respond faster.
For your own safety DO NOT attempt to use the unit again until it has been assessed properly and componants repaired/replaced accordingly.
