×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

(OP)
I have a piece of equipment manufactured in China; the manual describes the drive motor as 110V, 50Hz 200W. Would it be ok to run this on standard US residential wiring (120V 60Hz)?

I figure the motor would be pulling 1.6A instead of 1.8, so I'm not worried about harming the home wiring. Would the motor simply operate faster?

I'm civil by training (and by nature, after coffee), so any help is appreciated.

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

Yes, a mains motor will try to run 20% faster on 60Hz than on 50Hz. That might result in it drawing more power, and hence more current. Without knowing what the load is it's not possible to do much except guess. Some loads - typically centrifugal pumps and most fans - increase the power requirement with the cube of speed (torque rises quadratically), so the current can rise quite dramatically.
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

Gotta love the Chinese knock off mfrs. I don't know of anywhere in the world where they use 110V AC 50Hz. Some underpaid "engineer" at the knock-off factory didn't do his homework...


"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." -- Abraham Lincoln  
For the best use of Eng-Tips, please click here -> FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies  

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit


jraef: 110V 50Hz is used quite a lot in the UK for industrial (hand tools) and commercial portable equipment. Might be the same on mainland Europe too?

Not domestically for sure.

Many years ago I worked for a company that used 400Hz, (not sure of the V), for hand tools - stopped them being stolen for home use. I think it was called "Hicycle"

 

www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

(OP)
Thank you all for the input.  The motor is to essentially power a vibrating plate, so running faster won't necessarily require more power. Worst case, it'd trip the home circuit breaker, if not one on the equipment itself, right?

I think the unit has a speed control on the motor, so I can possibly compensate there.

Thanks for the quick replies - and I like that Lincoln quote, jraef.

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

Vibration devices are often designed to operate at a resonant frequency.  

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

400Hz is used on military equipment, so they can cut down on cable size, hence carry more cable(distance).

regards

stablefordd

RE: 110V 50 Hz motor on 120V 60 Hz home circuit

400 Hz is used to cut down on iron size. The amount of iron required in the magnetic circuit at 400 Hz is 60/400 of the amount required at 60 Hz. Motors, generators and transformers may be much smaller at 400 Hz. Current and the resulting cable size remains about the same.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources