Idf your equipment was purchased in the UK and you wish to move to the USA or South America, what's the best way of playing music with the different AC voltages?
He needs a step UP transformer, not a step DOWN transformer. It's certainly a good idea to choose one with a rating 2-3x what the load will be, but 10x larger would be very wasteful, both regarding initial cost, and operation because the idle current and dissipation is considerable for a very large transformer. One needs to be careful with the option to run from a 240V 2-phase circuit. The equipment needs to have sufficient isolation between its neutral-side power wiring, and ground. It may not be tested or safety certified for that.
You are right about 60 Hz transformers requiring smaller cores due to an increased reactance relative to 50 Hz. Unfortunate, machines with synchronous motors (some turntables and tape units) will turn 20% faster on 60 Hz, making voices sound like chipmunks. However, while somewhat rare, there are older houses in North America with single line service and thus don't have 240 volts in the panel. Not sure if Columbia has 110/220 volt services in homes.
I moved to Canada about 5 years ago. I have Cyrus equipment. I had the transformers changed in all the units (7) and they work. FYI, the transformers were specially made for the units. Sound is fab. Expensive, yes, but, sound is magic.obviously out of warranty, but the units were already over 5 years old at the time of modification. Hope this assists.
Hold your horses there Paul.. Are you SURE what you just said is correct? In the us we use two 120 legs to get 240. (No neutral) In the rest of the world they have a SINGLE 240 volt leg with a neutral.. Their 240 is not the same as our 240.. Forget the HZ, that only matters with things like motors. Having said this, it might work but is not the same.
It sounds like a reasonable suggestion to me. AFAIK it's common for high-load devices (ovens, etc.) to be wired up like that - between the two legs - anyway. The device will still see 240v on the input, regardless of if it's split phase or single phase. The only real difference is that there will be 120v between the devices "neutral" and ground, rather the than 0v (or near enough) if it was in the UK. Assuming the switch is on the "live" conductor, then switching it off would still leave 120v present in the device. But unless you've opened the device up, left it plugged in and used its power switch as the sole source of isolation, and then go poking around, I really don't see that being a big issue in practice (and if you get a shock in those circumstances, you deserve it tbh)
Yes, there is a safety consideration. The manufacturer should be consulted to confirm whether or not it is safe to operate the equipment with both power leads live to the tune of 120V from earth.
The device doesn't care. It still sees 240 volts either way. The issue is insulation. While no modern consumer product would ever tie the neutral to ground inside the product, it probably was not outright designed or safety agency tested to operate safely with two hot legs. Probably not a problem on good quality stereo gear that uses a power transformer, but be warned. In the USA we had low cost consumer electronics in the 1960s where one side of the AC line was tied to the signal or chassis ground. TV,s radios, stereos, guitar amplifiers. What is really bad is many of these had RCA jacks for other sources and especially a guitar amp with the input jack. And, we didn't use polarized plugs either at that time. Real death trap! Consider a guitar amp power cord plugged in one direction and the PA amp the other direction. Here you have full circuit amperage 120v between grounds. Grab the mic stand and touch the guitar...... This did actually happen during those days, sometimes fatal. If Europe had similar "hot chassis" products and one of those was ran on North American 240v, that would be a serious safety issue. This hot chassis practice is now outlawed in the USA since I believe the early 1980s.
Thank all you guys for keeping this thread alive...! Keep those comments coming! My point was that US 240 is NOT the same as 240 in other parts of the world. As an HVAC contractor I deal in motors... And 50hz and 60hz are not the same in my world, although in electronics it shouldn't matter. Maybe we can get Paul to comment on this, but I sure as heck would not want to chance running a British piece of 240 volt equipment on US 240! If only one leg of the British equipment was actually switched, a power surge could blow that equipment even when switched off!
Came here w/ a bunch of UK computer & electronics components didn’t wanna have to change all the leads so I set of a Mini UK consumer unit in my home office in US but in 230 / 60Hz. & matched UK type G plug sockets Now I’m interested to get 240 & 50Hz is ok since my music gear is set up for it. To be fair, I think a McIntoch tube amp & phono sound good still at 50Hz.
I'm pretty sure that what you are suggesting doesn't meet code, and is almost certainly dangerous. A lot of high end gear will either have a voltage selector switch on the back, or failing that, a multi tap power transformer which allows it to be converted quite easily to 120V. The AC frequency is not a factor with most gear, but will be a problem with anything that has an AC synchronous motor driven directly off the wall power. Turntables and things like tape decks could be affected.
A good lot of euro built hifi equipment never makes it for US import due to the competitive market. They don't even bother with voltage. I also don't suspect they would ask if it wasn't an issue for them. I have 220 outlets in my home.
Would need a "step up" transformer if not using the split phase 240v and as others have put it effects motor speed and soem equipment uses the mains as a master clock frequency.
When I moved from the US to India (240 v / 50 Hz), I was able to convert voltage with a transformer, but had to have the turntable converted otherwise it would would run at 5/6 speed.
Yeah his answer overlooks this. I have a turntable with the same issue, a Thorens TD-147 imported from EU. It derives the speed from the mains frequency. So when I plugged it in with 60Hz mains, the speed was wrong and I had to buy a 60Hz pully wheel to make it work correctly.
If I may put all of these comments in context, the things we KNOW are that his British turntable WILL NOT WORK, there may well be a safety factor involved in all of this, and I think none of use would be willing to use our high end equipment as a test bed to see what would happen! Thanks to all of you who commented!
FFS it's a 2:1 isolation transformer. That makes it also a 1:2 if you turn it around. Paul's so-called gaff may be because the products he deals with don't differentiate and just call them step-down transformers. Same SKU.
Ok, on the 50 vs 60 Hz thing, my sainted mother, bless her, bought a turntable designed to run on some voltage / 50 Hz when we lived in a third world country that will remain nameless for its protection. I say “some voltage” because standard supply was 110V live and neutral but lots of sockets had two lives out of phase to make 220V. Records ran fast. Stiff Little Fingers never had more energy... or a more tinny sound... So if you have a bit of kit that runs a motor that references the AC mains frequency, it’s going to be messed up...
This reminds me of a trip to China where I had some prototype samples of active speakers set up in a hotel room with a transformer to lower the voltage to 110V as these speakers were for US market. The cleaner apparently unplugged the transformer while using the vacuum and instead plugged in the speakers directly to the 220V after finishing the cleaning job. When I came back to the room I could smell the smoke of burned electronics and quickly realized what happened.
Ok, suppose you do this for a conventional lamp with an incandescent bulb that is switched by a wall switch. When you change the light bulb there will be 120 volts to ground at the light bulb even with the switch off. Switches normally only switch the hot wire, and in the US both wires are hot. Probably bypasses the GFCI protection for that awesome instant water kettle you have too.
I think you mean step up transformer, there would be a difference in the the way the plugs and sockets are wired? Also if he is trying to bring a turntable or tape machine 60 Hz may not work, depending on its design
Yes, you find that in many larger apartment buildings. But very rarely in a residential property. In fact this is a problem for serious home machine shops using surplus industrial tools with three phase motors. Many utilities will refuse to offer 3 phase service on a residential lot even if there is 3 phase power right at the pole, which there usually is. The alternative is expensive and inefficient rotary converters.
Question: if I have a 230v/50Hz Diezel amp that is 100 watt and want to run here in USA, what would I need to avoid damaging the amp and making it work? My home does have 220V power available but not sure what to do.
Yes, they do but I'm not clear on if they bond their neutral to the service ground as we do in North America. As far as the device being powered with 240v it doesn't care if one leg is zero volts and the other 240 or both are split phase 120v, either way it's still 240 volts. However there is a safety concern. In the USA and Canada where 240v devices must have double pole fuses and power switches*. European devices may not and have a continuous neutral like many 120v North American products. It's not really unsafe as the neutral should not be connected to ground inside a device but the US safety agencies frown on running 120V listed devices, like large power amplifiers on North American 240v. (But we do it all the time in large AV installations.) * This requirement may be obsolete. I have a new 2008 vintage HVAC condenser that uses a single pole contactor for 240v. IMO, that's the ultimate cheapo cost cutting! What's the cost of another contactor pole?
@Mike Eastridge Well with all due respect, I find UK installations less safe looking. Perhaps you saw some hack jobs or old American installation. First your meter and incoming service wires are exposed single jacketed conductors. OK, it's not really unsafe but we would never allow that since about 1940. The minimum is double composite jacked service cable (only in residential and light commercial) or conduit. I too am an EE in the broadcast industry. I did a facility installation in London a few years ago and they used plastic jacketed cable, similar to American Romex in a commercial office building, in a computer room, above a suspended ceiling as well as raised computer flooring. Over here that must be a minimum of metal clad flexible cable (MC or BX) or in metal conduit. Again it's not that your codes are inherently unsafe, I just see ours as more demanding. And you trust your electricians to do the electrical inspection. Here that is a separate government function where each locality has building inspectors on public payroll. I'm curious to your thoughts?
@Mike Eastridge Well I guess our argument is that those terminals are not accessible to the consumer or user. Only a qualified electrician is supposed to have that access. But there are still OSHA industrial rules that do require some safety features even for professionals, probably not as strict as yours though. We do not generally require insulated ground wires. except in cordage and cables. There is an exception in my field where isolated ground systems are installed. There the ground must be insulated and bonded at the central service ground point. And when using conduit, the ground is always an insulated wire but I'm not sure if that is required by our national electrical code NEC. We also allow the raw conduit to serve as the ground conductor with some exceptions. In larger electrical rooms where there are separate exposed ground wires, they are always bare copper. I am an EE, not an electrical PE or electrician, so I'm not a code expert except where I need to know for my field.
Please i have a stand mixer i got it from europe please what transformer shoud i use And one more thing the mixer has 800 watts I would appreciate your recommendation
I bought a 5KVA 230v Pure Sine Wave Solar inverter what I understand now the 230v is One Phase 230v not the 220v US Standard as what I thought ! I have a Siemens MTO 100A Transformer Input 220-480 & Output is 110-240v ! I originally thought I could just take the 230 for the L 1 is I thought 115v & the Neutral would be 115v I could just in case of emergency make my entire main panel One Phase 115v at the Inverter has written on it at 5KVA is 96A “ I am looking how to transform one phase 230 V into two phase 115 V each ?
Why would you use a step-down transformer when your stepping 120V to 220V? Did you mean Step-Up? And yes you could wire a step-down in reveres but your the one giving out the advice so please be responsible.
Hello, I am from the Uk I bought something from Usa online and it has a 3 pin plug but that wont work in the Uk do I need a convertor? and can you please give me an example of which to buy please Alan
Not correct the voltage is still 240V but the regulations say it has to be 230v -6% or +10% this allows us to still have up to 250v here and still comply with EU. Check the IEE 18th Electrical regulations for definitions.
@@marcse7en Not correct the voltage is still 240V but the regulations say it has to be 230v -6% or +10% this allows us to still have up to 250v here and still comply with EU. Check the IEE 18th Electrical regulations for definitions.
That's why I said nominally. On paper the number changed to harmonise us with Europe in 2003, but in practice, nothing actually changed as they increased the tolerance at the same time.
Question on this matter of power and sin wave production, been into the solar tech. minimally but does anyone know of a mains power unit that does 220/240V to a perfect sin wave source converter?
I bought a nice Marantz system with a Pro-Ject turntable, but it came from the UK (I'm in the US), for a great price, not thinking it through through what a pain it would be to use all of them. I rent an old house with only 100 amp service. Could I buy a step up transformer and then plug in a multiple G type (UK) outlet power conditioner into the transformer, with 4 or 5 components plugged into the conditioner. Does this sound like a disaster waiting to happen?
Many older homes in the US do not have 220V service. Also, I think you meant a "step up" transformer. And, using a step up transformer is the safest way to go.
@Fat Rat We have more guns than people and according to some data-denying gun-loving people (those shooting at beer cans in rural America, those collecting AR15s in their basement for the next civil war, or those who sell guns), more guns make life safer here. The reason we have so much gun violence is just due to teachers being unarmed, pastors being unarmed etc. Anyone from 8 years old and up should carry a gun at all times and we could stop the lone crazy gun shooter instantly...or maybe America got this all wrong?
@@ThinkingBetter Theres a church in the next town over to me that had armed congregants which made sure an assailant wasn’t able to hurt way more people than he did.
@@ThinkingBetter why not arm fetuses with a 38 special so they can kill them thar pesky abortion doctors? Because science! And because America! Yee haw. Everyone with a gun at all times has been tried. It failed and led to gun control in the west. You had to check your gun when you came to Dodge. Everyone carrying a gun at all times led to a rise in shootouts and murders. Gee, who woulda thought. Maybe a saloon type atmosphere with hookers, gambling, and alcohol isn't a good mix with gun packing "2nd amendment enthusiasts," aka idiots.
What? No shameless plug for a 240v PS Audio power plant plugged into a dryer outlet in the laundry room?? That would put your money where your mouth is 😉 ( or TWO bridged ?? :-D) I moved from uk to us. Had my dealer swap my amps transformer taps. UNFORTUNATELY he got the cables tangled with the cooling fan blades....l realized before it was too late. Could have had a Class A amp meltdown!
Robert Caldwell Na I’m not wrong, look at electronics that can either work on 120 or 220, at 220 they are much more efficient than 120, especially when it comes to power supplies, I know this because I have a power supply that can either work on 220 or 120 along with some base speakers. I do know what I am talking about.
As explained by my high school electronics teacher, 220 volts means fewer amps for the same amount of watts (Ohms Law). So smaller gauge wire can be used in the house, saving some money. I guess for an electrical contractor, it adds up.
Yes, that is correct in at least a couple of areas. First, voltage drop and internal loses. The higher the current, the more internal winding losses a motor, transformer, or any magnetic device has which increases with power requirements.. Second is distribution wiring. 240v can carry 4800 watts on two 12ga wires, 120 only 2400 watts. Copper is expensive. There's a reason your central HVAC or even large window air conditioners run on 240v. There is no reason a 5hp motor can't be designed to run on 120v. But it's just not efficient when 240v is readily available. Huge 100hp+ industrial motors are run on 2400 or even 4800 volts for the same reason. However there is a practical limit. At some point the cost of insulating high voltage motor windings out weighs the cost of the copper. Same for generators. But consider we do have sub station transformers that work at 220,000 volts.
Miami !! Any day ..! Now ... I hate to say it but Paul my friend ... you are completely wrong with your ideas of doubling up the mains voltage in houses by hooking up two phases ! This will not yield a doubling of voltage at all... think about it ... you only have 120 volts to start with the only thing you can mess around with is phase and with 3 phase you have fixed 120 degree displacement.. Though I do know that in North America you do run Delta secondaries with a centre tapped winding on the neutral winding or something.. which can give you 240 volts . I'm not a big advocate of power regenerators but in this case Paul missed a big opportunity to convince you to buy a P20 ... these I'm sure can provide 240 volts output
North American *residential* power does not use 2 Delta secondaries from a 3-phase transformer. Power to residential step-down transformers is single-phase; the primary only connects to one of the 3 distribution-line phases. The transformer secondaries are 2-phase, i.e. 180 degree phase difference. Only commercial/industrial power is provided as 3-phase.
Marianne Oelund this is rubbish ..., sorry..! Two alternating voltages which are 180 degrees out of phase cancel ! You cannot derive double the voltage from two phases ....
guess deserve ~ 3 phase supplies are 120 degrees apart ok ? I you want to have two windings or supplies which you wish to put in series to make up 240 volts then the phase angle will have to be 180 as the article I Googled said which I already knew anyway .....SO .... how then are you going to change the phase angle when it's supplied at 120 degrees ?
For anyone thinking of writing in and saying things like, "I have a bunch of _____ gear" say brands and such because us nerds like hearing about it! I am over here like, "Man...sure wish I knew what cool British gear he has."
Watch out the last time someone asked him to compare two different countries audio equipment he went on a political rant. P.S. Audio aka Pro-Socialist Audio.
He needs a step UP transformer, not a step DOWN transformer.
It's certainly a good idea to choose one with a rating 2-3x what the load will be, but 10x larger would be very wasteful, both regarding initial cost, and operation because the idle current and dissipation is considerable for a very large transformer.
One needs to be careful with the option to run from a 240V 2-phase circuit. The equipment needs to have sufficient isolation between its neutral-side power wiring, and ground. It may not be tested or safety certified for that.
You are right about 60 Hz transformers requiring smaller cores due to an increased reactance relative to 50 Hz. Unfortunate, machines with synchronous motors (some turntables and tape units) will turn 20% faster on 60 Hz, making voices sound like chipmunks. However, while somewhat rare, there are older houses in North America with single line service and thus don't have 240 volts in the panel. Not sure if Columbia has 110/220 volt services in homes.
I moved to Canada about 5 years ago. I have Cyrus equipment. I had the transformers changed in all the units (7) and they work. FYI, the transformers were specially made for the units. Sound is fab. Expensive, yes, but, sound is magic.obviously out of warranty, but the units were already over 5 years old at the time of modification. Hope this assists.
Hold your horses there Paul.. Are you SURE what you just said is correct? In the us we use two 120 legs to get 240. (No neutral) In the rest of the world they have a SINGLE 240 volt leg with a neutral.. Their 240 is not the same as our 240.. Forget the HZ, that only matters with things like motors. Having said this, it might work but is not the same.
It sounds like a reasonable suggestion to me. AFAIK it's common for high-load devices (ovens, etc.) to be wired up like that - between the two legs - anyway.
The device will still see 240v on the input, regardless of if it's split phase or single phase.
The only real difference is that there will be 120v between the devices "neutral" and ground, rather the than 0v (or near enough) if it was in the UK. Assuming the switch is on the "live" conductor, then switching it off would still leave 120v present in the device. But unless you've opened the device up, left it plugged in and used its power switch as the sole source of isolation, and then go poking around, I really don't see that being a big issue in practice (and if you get a shock in those circumstances, you deserve it tbh)
should get the phase voltage of 220v, like any other place in the world.
Yes, there is a safety consideration. The manufacturer should be consulted to confirm whether or not it is safe to operate the equipment with both power leads live to the tune of 120V from earth.
The device doesn't care. It still sees 240 volts either way. The issue is insulation. While no modern consumer product would ever tie the neutral to ground inside the product, it probably was not outright designed or safety agency tested to operate safely with two hot legs. Probably not a problem on good quality stereo gear that uses a power transformer, but be warned. In the USA we had low cost consumer electronics in the 1960s where one side of the AC line was tied to the signal or chassis ground. TV,s radios, stereos, guitar amplifiers. What is really bad is many of these had RCA jacks for other sources and especially a guitar amp with the input jack. And, we didn't use polarized plugs either at that time. Real death trap! Consider a guitar amp power cord plugged in one direction and the PA amp the other direction. Here you have full circuit amperage 120v between grounds. Grab the mic stand and touch the guitar...... This did actually happen during those days, sometimes fatal. If Europe had similar "hot chassis" products and one of those was ran on North American 240v, that would be a serious safety issue. This hot chassis practice is now outlawed in the USA since I believe the early 1980s.
Thank all you guys for keeping this thread alive...! Keep those comments coming! My point was that US 240 is NOT the same as 240 in other parts of the world. As an HVAC contractor I deal in motors... And 50hz and 60hz are not the same in my world, although in electronics it shouldn't matter. Maybe we can get Paul to comment on this, but I sure as heck would not want to chance running a British piece of 240 volt equipment on US 240! If only one leg of the British equipment was actually switched, a power surge could blow that equipment even when switched off!
Came here w/ a bunch of UK computer & electronics components didn’t wanna have to change all the leads so I set of a Mini UK consumer unit in my home office in US but in 230 / 60Hz. & matched UK type G plug sockets Now I’m interested to get 240 & 50Hz is ok since my music gear is set up for it. To be fair, I think a McIntoch tube amp & phono sound good still at 50Hz.
A STEP-UP TRANSFORMER is required. UK voltage is 230 volts nominal.
You mean step down...
I'm pretty sure that what you are suggesting doesn't meet code, and is almost certainly dangerous.
A lot of high end gear will either have a voltage selector switch on the back, or failing that, a multi tap power transformer which allows it to be converted quite easily to 120V.
The AC frequency is not a factor with most gear, but will be a problem with anything that has an AC synchronous motor driven directly off the wall power. Turntables and things like tape decks could be affected.
A good lot of euro built hifi equipment never makes it for US import due to the competitive market. They don't even bother with voltage. I also don't suspect they would ask if it wasn't an issue for them. I have 220 outlets in my home.
Would need a "step up" transformer if not using the split phase 240v and as others have put it effects motor speed and soem equipment uses the mains as a master clock frequency.
When I moved from the US to India (240 v / 50 Hz), I was able to convert voltage with a transformer, but had to have the turntable converted otherwise it would would run at 5/6 speed.
Yeah his answer overlooks this. I have a turntable with the same issue, a Thorens TD-147 imported from EU. It derives the speed from the mains frequency. So when I plugged it in with 60Hz mains, the speed was wrong and I had to buy a 60Hz pully wheel to make it work correctly.
Many turntables have direct drive. Mine from the '80s uses a quartz reference.
If I may put all of these comments in context, the things we KNOW are that his British turntable WILL NOT WORK, there may well be a safety factor involved in all of this, and I think none of use would be willing to use our high end equipment as a test bed to see what would happen! Thanks to all of you who commented!
Step-up not step-down to run @220V 1 phase...
Exactly!
I think from uk to us you would need a step down transformer
FFS it's a 2:1 isolation transformer. That makes it also a 1:2 if you turn it around. Paul's so-called gaff may be because the products he deals with don't differentiate and just call them step-down transformers. Same SKU.
Ok, on the 50 vs 60 Hz thing, my sainted mother, bless her, bought a turntable designed to run on some voltage / 50 Hz when we lived in a third world country that will remain nameless for its protection. I say “some voltage” because standard supply was 110V live and neutral but lots of sockets had two lives out of phase to make 220V. Records ran fast. Stiff Little Fingers never had more energy... or a more tinny sound...
So if you have a bit of kit that runs a motor that references the AC mains frequency, it’s going to be messed up...
He needs a step UP transformer: 110 - 230/240v.
What a great answer. I lived in Germany for 2 years. I would have recommended that he buy a stepdown transformer. Good job!
Step up transformer.
Some equipments come with a switch to select the 2 voltages. But why doesnt all manufacturers implement it ?
This reminds me of a trip to China where I had some prototype samples of active speakers set up in a hotel room with a transformer to lower the voltage to 110V as these speakers were for US market. The cleaner apparently unplugged the transformer while using the vacuum and instead plugged in the speakers directly to the 220V after finishing the cleaning job. When I came back to the room I could smell the smoke of burned electronics and quickly realized what happened.
Ok, suppose you do this for a conventional lamp with an incandescent bulb that is switched by a wall switch. When you change the light bulb there will be 120 volts to ground at the light bulb even with the switch off. Switches normally only switch the hot wire, and in the US both wires are hot. Probably bypasses the GFCI protection for that awesome instant water kettle you have too.
I think you mean step up transformer, there would be a difference in the the way the plugs and sockets are wired? Also if he is trying to bring a turntable or tape machine 60 Hz may not work, depending on its design
Interesting
In some US locations that 220v may only be 208v if the phases are just 120 degrees apart.
Yes, you find that in many larger apartment buildings. But very rarely in a residential property. In fact this is a problem for serious home machine shops using surplus industrial tools with three phase motors. Many utilities will refuse to offer 3 phase service on a residential lot even if there is 3 phase power right at the pole, which there usually is. The alternative is expensive and inefficient rotary converters.
Voltage in UK is 240v, but it will often say 230v nominal
Question: if I have a 230v/50Hz Diezel amp that is 100 watt and want to run here in USA, what would I need to avoid damaging the amp and making it work? My home does have 220V power available but not sure what to do.
Peru is 220, you should find a power supply fairly easy. Also, the grid isn't the cleanest so you might want something between the outlet.
Doesn't England's 220v use a hot and neutral. The US 220v is 120v on each leg and a third wire for ground. How will this affect things?
Yes, they do but I'm not clear on if they bond their neutral to the service ground as we do in North America. As far as the device being powered with 240v it doesn't care if one leg is zero volts and the other 240 or both are split phase 120v, either way it's still 240 volts. However there is a safety concern. In the USA and Canada where 240v devices must have double pole fuses and power switches*. European devices may not and have a continuous neutral like many 120v North American products. It's not really unsafe as the neutral should not be connected to ground inside a device but the US safety agencies frown on running 120V listed devices, like large power amplifiers on North American 240v. (But we do it all the time in large AV installations.)
* This requirement may be obsolete. I have a new 2008 vintage HVAC condenser that uses a single pole contactor for 240v. IMO, that's the ultimate cheapo cost cutting! What's the cost of another contactor pole?
@Mike Eastridge Well with all due respect, I find UK installations less safe looking. Perhaps you saw some hack jobs or old American installation. First your meter and incoming service wires are exposed single jacketed conductors. OK, it's not really unsafe but we would never allow that since about 1940. The minimum is double composite jacked service cable (only in residential and light commercial) or conduit. I too am an EE in the broadcast industry. I did a facility installation in London a few years ago and they used plastic jacketed cable, similar to American Romex in a commercial office building, in a computer room, above a suspended ceiling as well as raised computer flooring. Over here that must be a minimum of metal clad flexible cable (MC or BX) or in metal conduit. Again it's not that your codes are inherently unsafe, I just see ours as more demanding. And you trust your electricians to do the electrical inspection. Here that is a separate government function where each locality has building inspectors on public payroll. I'm curious to your thoughts?
@Mike Eastridge Well I guess our argument is that those terminals are not accessible to the consumer or user. Only a qualified electrician is supposed to have that access. But there are still OSHA industrial rules that do require some safety features even for professionals, probably not as strict as yours though. We do not generally require insulated ground wires. except in cordage and cables. There is an exception in my field where isolated ground systems are installed. There the ground must be insulated and bonded at the central service ground point. And when using conduit, the ground is always an insulated wire but I'm not sure if that is required by our national electrical code NEC. We also allow the raw conduit to serve as the ground conductor with some exceptions. In larger electrical rooms where there are separate exposed ground wires, they are always bare copper. I am an EE, not an electrical PE or electrician, so I'm not a code expert except where I need to know for my field.
What good is 120v if it's at .0000001hz?
I get power around 3am on Saturday. Rolling blackouts are the norm ;)
Please i have a stand mixer i got it from europe please what transformer shoud i use
And one more thing the mixer has 800 watts
I would appreciate your recommendation
I bought a 5KVA 230v Pure Sine Wave Solar inverter what I understand now the 230v is One Phase 230v not the 220v US Standard as what I thought ! I have a Siemens MTO 100A Transformer Input 220-480 & Output is 110-240v ! I originally thought I could just take the 230 for the L 1 is I thought 115v & the Neutral would be 115v I could just in case of emergency make my entire main panel One Phase 115v at the Inverter has written on it at 5KVA is 96A “ I am looking how to transform one phase 230 V into two phase 115 V each ?
So much bad information.
Why would you use a step-down transformer when your stepping 120V to 220V? Did you mean Step-Up? And yes you could wire a step-down in reveres but your the one giving out the advice so please be responsible.
Hello, I am from the Uk I bought something from Usa online and it has a 3 pin plug but that wont work in the Uk do I need a convertor? and can you please give me an example of which to buy please Alan
UK is nominally 230V 50Hz, not 220V or 240V as mentioned by many others. It was 240V, was was changed to unify us with Europe.
Correct! I commented the same myself! 👍
Not correct the voltage is still 240V but the regulations say it has to be 230v -6% or +10% this allows us to still have up to 250v here and still comply with EU. Check the IEE 18th Electrical regulations for definitions.
@@marcse7en Not correct the voltage is still 240V but the regulations say it has to be 230v -6% or +10% this allows us to still have up to 250v here and still comply with EU. Check the IEE 18th Electrical regulations for definitions.
That's why I said nominally. On paper the number changed to harmonise us with Europe in 2003, but in practice, nothing actually changed as they increased the tolerance at the same time.
@@GaryB007 Roll on Brexit.
220v vs 110v size of appliance at same Wattage ? ( amount of copper in motor )
I would assume he might rent a house or apartment so he may not be able to just call an electrician.
Question on this matter of power and sin wave production, been into the solar tech. minimally but does anyone know of a mains power unit that does 220/240V to a perfect sin wave source converter?
Cambridge audio from Cambridge ?
I bought a nice Marantz system with a Pro-Ject turntable, but it came from the UK (I'm in the US), for a great price, not thinking it through through what a pain it would be to use all of them. I rent an old house with only 100 amp service. Could I buy a step up transformer and then plug in a multiple G type (UK) outlet power conditioner into the transformer, with 4 or 5 components plugged into the conditioner. Does this sound like a disaster waiting to happen?
Pro-Ject customer service told me that when I move from the UK to the USA, all I need to do is to change the power cord.
Apple UK also told me that I am ok to take my 27In.desktop to the USA, use an adapter for the Uk to US wall plug or change the power cable.
Many older homes in the US do not have 220V service. Also, I think you meant a "step up" transformer. And, using a step up transformer is the safest way to go.
Here's you're proof that less is not more
Why would you?
the problem is japan 100v
3 phase 120v is just what I’m used to.
@Fat Rat Australia seems like a paradise to me, your poet daevid allen is one of my favorite guys.
@Fat Rat We have more guns than people and according to some data-denying gun-loving people (those shooting at beer cans in rural America, those collecting AR15s in their basement for the next civil war, or those who sell guns), more guns make life safer here. The reason we have so much gun violence is just due to teachers being unarmed, pastors being unarmed etc. Anyone from 8 years old and up should carry a gun at all times and we could stop the lone crazy gun shooter instantly...or maybe America got this all wrong?
@@ThinkingBetter Theres a church in the next town over to me that had armed congregants which made sure an assailant wasn’t able to hurt way more people than he did.
@@graxjpg Well, America is really nuts about guns.
@@ThinkingBetter why not arm fetuses with a 38 special so they can kill them thar pesky abortion doctors? Because science! And because America! Yee haw.
Everyone with a gun at all times has been tried. It failed and led to gun control in the west. You had to check your gun when you came to Dodge. Everyone carrying a gun at all times led to a rise in shootouts and murders. Gee, who woulda thought. Maybe a saloon type atmosphere with hookers, gambling, and alcohol isn't a good mix with gun packing "2nd amendment enthusiasts," aka idiots.
What? No shameless plug for a 240v PS Audio power plant plugged into a dryer outlet in the laundry room??
That would put your money where your mouth is 😉 ( or TWO bridged ?? :-D)
I moved from uk to us. Had my dealer swap my amps transformer taps. UNFORTUNATELY he got the cables tangled with the cooling fan blades....l realized before it was too late. Could have had a Class A amp meltdown!
220 volts is more efficient than 120 volts
wrong wrong wrong.
Lol what does that even mean?
Robert Caldwell Na I’m not wrong, look at electronics that can either work on 120 or 220, at 220 they are much more efficient than 120, especially when it comes to power supplies, I know this because I have a power supply that can either work on 220 or 120 along with some base speakers. I do know what I am talking about.
As explained by my high school electronics teacher, 220 volts means fewer amps for the same amount of watts (Ohms Law). So smaller gauge wire can be used in the house, saving some money. I guess for an electrical contractor, it adds up.
Yes, that is correct in at least a couple of areas. First, voltage drop and internal loses. The higher the current, the more internal winding losses a motor, transformer, or any magnetic device has which increases with power requirements.. Second is distribution wiring. 240v can carry 4800 watts on two 12ga wires, 120 only 2400 watts. Copper is expensive. There's a reason your central HVAC or even large window air conditioners run on 240v. There is no reason a 5hp motor can't be designed to run on 120v. But it's just not efficient when 240v is readily available. Huge 100hp+ industrial motors are run on 2400 or even 4800 volts for the same reason. However there is a practical limit. At some point the cost of insulating high voltage motor windings out weighs the cost of the copper. Same for generators. But consider we do have sub station transformers that work at 220,000 volts.
Take one pin from one socket and an other pin from a socket across the room and you get 220V ;)
And get it all on camera!
...... And you probably get ELECTROCUTED too! 👎😂
Not true if thet are both at the same potential on the same phase all you would get is 0v . You need to check some basic electrical theory .
Miami !! Any day ..!
Now ... I hate to say it but Paul my friend ... you are completely wrong with your ideas of doubling up the mains voltage in houses by hooking up two phases ! This will not yield a doubling of voltage at all... think about it ... you only have 120 volts to start with the only thing you can mess around with is phase and with 3 phase you have fixed 120 degree displacement.. Though I do know that in North America you do run Delta secondaries with a centre tapped winding on the neutral winding or something.. which can give you 240 volts . I'm not a big advocate of power regenerators but in this case Paul missed a big opportunity to convince you to buy a P20 ... these I'm sure can provide 240 volts output
North American *residential* power does not use 2 Delta secondaries from a 3-phase transformer.
Power to residential step-down transformers is single-phase; the primary only connects to one of the 3 distribution-line phases. The transformer secondaries are 2-phase, i.e. 180 degree phase difference.
Only commercial/industrial power is provided as 3-phase.
Marianne Oelund this is rubbish ..., sorry..! Two alternating voltages which are 180 degrees out of phase cancel ! You cannot derive double the voltage from two phases ....
@@marianneoelund2940 120 degrees not 180.
@@janinapalmer8368 er, no, they do not cancel out, quite the opposite. Google "split phase supply" and read the wiki page on it.
guess deserve ~ 3 phase supplies are 120 degrees apart ok ? I you want to have two windings or supplies which you wish to put in series to make up 240 volts then the phase angle will have to be 180 as the article I Googled said which I already knew anyway .....SO .... how then are you going to change the phase angle when it's supplied at 120 degrees ?
For anyone thinking of writing in and saying things like, "I have a bunch of _____ gear" say brands and such because us nerds like hearing about it! I am over here like, "Man...sure wish I knew what cool British gear he has."
But like you know like it's like.
@@lynnpoole7830 ಠ ل͟ ಠ
Watch out the last time someone asked him to compare two different countries audio equipment he went on a political rant. P.S. Audio aka Pro-Socialist Audio.
You mean like you are now, you fucking hypocrite?
This is an audio site you troll. Why don't you stick your thumb up your ass and crawl back under the rock you came from.
@@goodless I got your URL and your home address.
@@tommyK7282 and you know what, you’re not going to do shit with it you pussy.
@@goodless wishful thinking.