240v tools
 

The http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...microwave.html got me thinking about using more 240v stuff.

A few years ago I switched out my work lights that had 120v 500w lamps for 120v 300w lamps. The 500w lamps seemed to burn out quickly.
Well finished the 6 pack of 300w amps I bought back in 2009 or 2010. (I only use these occasionally)
So I am upgrading to 300w 240v halogens and putting a 6-15 plug on my light.

Trying to grind down some anti-abrasion hard facing rod welds the other day gave me plenty of time to consider that it might be time to get a bigger grinder. Well I already have one of the largest most powerful 120v grinders made so I searched 220v grinders and got a hit. A 9 inch 240v 2,400w grinder.
That should do it. But they are not cheap.

These will work well with generator support to not load up one or the other 120v legs of split phase power coming off the generator.

Why 240v?
Well a standard 120v house circuit give you between 1,800 and 2,400 watts.
Going up to 240v on a 20 amp breaker gives you 4,800 watts on one circuit.

Single phase .

God bless
Wyr

For lighting it's poor mans 277v power.
I'm converting all my 78mm halogens to 240v power.
Added a 240v 6-20 receptacle to my plasma cutter, mainly for a convenient place to plug in my 240v German grinder.
I will eventually add a 6-20 receptacle to my welder too.

New 240v tool. The harbor freight 240v, 2.4kw spot welder that requires 16 amps.
Which if the name plate is correct is like a .62 power factor. So it will be getting some power factor correction.

I have a home made 120v spot welder but it kind of sucks.

16 amps continuous at 240 VAC . I would wire it with # 10 copper THHN & try it on a 2 pole 20 amp Circuit Breaker . If that holds , good , it not go to a 2 pole 30 amp CB . 10 copper THHN is good for 30 amps . Certainly OK for 20 amps .

God bless
Wyr

The spot welder says it can take a 50% duty cycle.
I think if I tried to run it at a real 50% duty cycle it would smoke the transformer.
Realistically I think it's good for more like a 20% to 30% duty cycle depending on ambient temperature.
The factory cord appears to be metric equivalent of about 16 gauge.
I can power factor correct it and drop a few amps.
So far fixed 6-20 circuits are 12 gauge wire and 20 amp breaker. Equipment 6-20 receptacles have 10 gauge dryer cord feeding the plasma cutter then it splits at the main buss inside the machine with 12 gauge wires that are maybe 1 foot long going to the 6-20 receptacle.

6-20 receptacle is 240 VAC single phase 20 amp . Fine to run # 12 copper , but should be wired to a 2 pole 20 anp CB .

God bless
Wyr

Yes always tandem breakers for 240v.

Also the cord on the spot welder is 14awg not 16 like I thought.

The spot welder comes with a 6ft cord that had ring terminals on it, as if you are going to hard wire a portable tool to a panel with a 6 foot cord.
I put a 6-15 plug on it.

One 15 amp receptacle to rule them all.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1487135674

Added another 240v tool to the mix.
I converted my old Japanese air compressor from a 100v motor to 240v.
The full load amps on this motor is rated for 7.2amps. The shut off amps are at 5.5 so I'm thinking of replacing the current 5 inch pulley for a 6.

To get more air ?

Wyr
God bless

Merry Christmas

I made another convert.
I took my nissan leafs 120v "brick" charger opened it up, broke the MOV off the circuit board, took the 20vAC control transformer hooked its wires up line to neutral/ground on the 10-30 dryer cord i installed, thus converting it to 240v power.
So instead of charging at around 1.4kw, it now charges at 2.8kw.

I'm guessing the charger gets hot with 2800 watts going threw it ? also curious how many volts & AH's the battery pack is.

A leaf packs notmal voltage is something like 380v.
This battery pack appears to have most of its 24kw intact.
My OEM EVSE is the 2011 and 2012 "brick" that was designed and over built by Panasonic appliances.
The evse doesn't really get very warm at all, it's just a fancy extension cord with built in safety switch. The cords power circuit doesn't know if it's carrying 120 or 240v power.
The conversation from 240vAC to 300 to 400vdc happens in the vehicles built in charger.

Thanks for the info on the charge system , could be using 240v will have a higher conversion efficiency percentage then 120v well that's my guess.

Im going to try and get a grip on this here and now

For Solar panels is it best to convert to ac then to dc or is it preferable to use DC to DC with PV charge stations ?

All the charging setups I am aware of use AC input power.
The j1772 input voltage is something like 100 to 130vac for low power then 220 to 250vac for the high voltage.
Chademo sends pack voltage out to the vehicle. The lowest voltage chadomo I have seen uses 240v single phase, most use 480v 3 phase.

In theory if you had unlimited budget you could get a chademo that takes DC input and steps it up, but if your voltage is say 48vdc I imagine that the conversation inefficiencys would be fairly horrific. If you tied into say a 400 to 1,000v array the conversation would be pretty good.

What are you using for grinding wheels? Usually its an issue with not having the best abrasive for the job.