Voltage conversion

[Anon Email]

Hi People,

I'm an Aussie going to Korea to live for a year or two. I'm bringing
some appliances with me. The Australian rating is 240V/ 50 Hz. Korea
is 220V/ 60 Hz. Will I need a transformer? I read somewhere that
transformers for home use are generally only step-up/ down x2. Can
anyone give me a heads-up?

Cheers,

Anon

 

[Phil Allison]

"Anon Email"

I'm an Aussie going to Korea to live for a year or two. I'm bringing
some appliances with me.

** To hard for you to say what kind ??

The Australian rating is 240V/ 50 Hz. Korea
is 220V/ 60 Hz. Will I need a transformer?

** Maybe, in some cases.

But not in most.



...... Phil

 

[Nobody]

On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:32:23 -0700, Anon Email wrote:

I'm an Aussie going to Korea to live for a year or two. I'm bringing
some appliances with me. The Australian rating is 240V/ 50 Hz. Korea
is 220V/ 60 Hz. Will I need a transformer? I read somewhere that
transformers for home use are generally only step-up/ down x2. Can
anyone give me a heads-up?

I would expect that most appliances designed for the Australian market
would be designed to also work with the EU standard of 230V +/-10%
(207-253V), and should work fine at 220V.

50Hz vs 60Hz may be more of an issue, and isn't so easily solved. Items
which simply convert the mains to DC won't care, but those which use the
mains as a clock source (e.g. mains-powered alarm clocks) will run fast,
and AC motors may run fast (and draw more power) or not work.

You can convert 60Hz to 50Hz with a VFD or an online UPS, but this may
cost as much as the appliance you want to power.

Many devices are designed to support multiple markets with only minimal
changes (e.g. I've seen mains alarm clocks with a 50/60Hz jumper), so it's
sometimes feasible to modify the device for a different mains frequency.

 

[Anon Email]

Thanks for your help, guys.

Cheers.

 

[Eeyore]

Anon Email wrote:

Hi People,

I'm an Aussie going to Korea to live for a year or two. I'm bringing
some appliances with me. The Australian rating is 240V/ 50 Hz. Korea
is 220V/ 60 Hz. Will I need a transformer? I read somewhere that
transformers for home use are generally only step-up/ down x2. Can
anyone give me a heads-up?

220 and 240V devices will *normally* work fine on each other's voltage.

Don't take anything that's reliant on mains frequency though. What did
you have in mind ?

Graham

 

[Jamie]

Anon Email wrote:

Hi People,

I'm an Aussie going to Korea to live for a year or two. I'm bringing
some appliances with me. The Australian rating is 240V/ 50 Hz. Korea
is 220V/ 60 Hz. Will I need a transformer? I read somewhere that
transformers for home use are generally only step-up/ down x2. Can
anyone give me a heads-up?

Cheers,

Anon
Most likely you won't have any issues.

P.S.
I thought they used 50Hz in Aussie land?


http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5"