The complete guide to running your 3 phase 415V machines on a single phase 240V supply by Drives Direct(Inverters) LTD
First a note about TRANSWAVE CONVERTERS
You will notice Transwave has been doing its best to try and discredit Drives Direct(Inverters) LTD and our superior Digital Phase Converter product by giving the customer the impression that the product is going to cause them problems with their Neighbours and the power companies !,THIS IS NOT THE CASE, we have 1000's of very happy customers who run our Digital Phase Converter products and NOT ONE purchaser has had ANY PROBLEMS with the converters at all and everyone is over the moon with the performance it offers them,We have many of our customers who run the digital phase converters 24 hours a day and we have some that have run like that for the last 4 years without a glitch, some of our other customers are business users and they run the digital converters converters 8 hours a day and enjoy perfect machine operation with no noise and very low power consumption and often these customers will have previously run a Rotary Phase Converter but part exchanged them for the latest technology Digital Converter units,Still worried ?, if so please call us on 01773 811038 and we will put your mind at rest,Dont worry, Unlike certain other phase converter sellers we open 7 days a week and from 10AM up until 10PM to help you the customer with everthing from selection of the correct product right down to wiring and setting up, you are not just purchasing a box from us !,FACT - NO OTHER COMPANY BUT DRIVES DIRECT WILL OFFER YOU THIS LEVEL OF SERVICE !Remember this AN OTHER suppliers ONLY REASON for all this effort over producing a warning on a product they don't even sell is to gain sales for themselves,*** WARNING ***If you do decide to go for one of this other ebay sellers IMO inverters or the old STATIC phase converters that can burn out your machines motors and oftern makes them run rough and wont even run some aluminum framed or DUAL SPEED motors or the expensive to run and noisy ROTARY converters then be sure to ask them for a CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE - BEFORE YOU PURCHASE !,Ask them if the START UP SURGE on the ROTARY CONVERTER will exceed the electricity companies recommendations for connection to the network without consultation, fail to do this and you COULD find your electricity supplier will ask you to DISCONNECT THE EQUIPMENT !,Read more in our ABOUT ME page and draw your own conclusions,
Transwave should stick to selling their own products rather than trying to discredit other peoples products to in order to gain sales for themselfs !.
This guide will assist anyone looking at purchasing any type of 3 phase converter equipment in deciding on the best option for their particular application, there are a number of types of phase converters available and deciding on the best option is often not an easy task as there is a lot of confusion over the different types out there and the options available,
If you find the information in this guide useful please let us know by clicking YES to the question "Was this guide helpful?" at the end of the guide,
Many people will at some time come across a 3 phase machine they would like to power up in the home, 3 phase machines often come up at fantastic prices in auctions from companies closing down and they often go at a very low price because they are three phase, One thing that often happens is that people look round at auctions and see a machine they like and they will look at the motors rating plate and see 220V and then assume they can run the machine on a normal household supply and its not until the electrician turns up to install the machine that they realise the machine is in fact a 3 phase machine and will not run on a normal domestic 240 Volt single phase supply,
Often getting a three phase supply installed from the national grid can be an expensive and time consuming task and it can lead to other complications as well, when you get a quotation its likely to be prohibitively expensive and even if you were to go down that route the quote will normally only cover groundwork's from the nearest 3 phase cable to the boundary of your property, you are then responsible for the excavation and making good of the trench on your side of the property, it can take months before they start the work and then when you get your supply the chances are the commercial rate tariff they offer you will be far more expensive than a domestic tariff and often there will be a daily standing charge to be paid even if you use no 3 phase at all that day !, also if you are in a domestic situation you can end up with the council contacting you to find out why you have had an industrial supply fitted to say your home garage and seeing if they can now charge you for business rates then the council get involved and start asking for a planning application for change of use to a business !, not a great start and not ideal even if you are looking to set up a small business from home, if you are renting a small industrial unit that does not have 3 phase then often 3 phase will be on site already and so the cost of getting it connected will be far lower than in the domestic situation BUT if you think about it having 3 phase installed even at a reduced cost is not always the best solution as in effect you are paying for something that you can not take with you, the landlord will have the benefit of the three phase if you decide to leave, its is often much better to spend the money you were going to spend on having the 3 phase installed on a phase converter then if you leave you can simply take your phase converter with you, if you end up moving to a place with no three phase you can use the phase converter again and if you close down or move to a premises with 3 phase installed already then you have a valuable asset you can sell on, For small 3 phase machines and in cases where you only have one 3 phase machine and especially if that machine is fitted with the DUAL VOLTAGE motor then fitting an inverter will be the cheapest way to get your machine up and running, basic inverters are only small units and they need to be wired into your machine BUT once fitted you then have in effect a SINGLE PHASE machine and if you ever resell it you will be able to get a much better price for it as a single phase machine than you could hope for in its 3 phase format, You will find that 90% of the motors out there that are under 5 HP and were made in the last 30 years will be fitted with DUAL VOLTAGE motors, basically a dual voltage motor is one where you can select the voltage it runs from simply by exchanging the links in the motors terminal box, this connection is called STAR and DELTA mode, in STAR mode the motors running voltage will be 415V where as in DELTA mode it will be 220V, for the manufacturer of the machine having a dual voltage motor is an advantage if they ever export the machine as in some countries their 3 phase voltage is 220V so if they had a drill for example and wanted to sell it in the USA then simply by changing the links in the motor to DELTA and replacing the coil in the starter switch box from a 415V coil to a 220V coil the machine would run just as well on American 220V three phase as it would here in the UK on 415V three phase, this is also an advantage for you if you want to run the machine here in the UK, this is because if you were to swap the links over to DELTA mode you would then be able to run your motor from single phase simply by using a BASIC 240V INVERTER, for the 240V inverter this is an easy task as all the inverter has to do is take your 220V single phase input and change it to 3 phase, the voltage is not changed and as its a comparatively low voltage this range of inverters are not at all expensive and they are physically very small, in fact for motors up to 5HP you can hold them in than palm of your hand at arms length !,
STAR(415V) MODE
DELTA(220V) MODE
The linking method shown above is the most popular method used BUT there are other methods in use so if your motors rating plate says it's a DUAL VOLTAGE motor BUT the configuration in the motors connection box does not lookthe pictures above then please contact us and we will talk you through the required connections.
If you have a machine that is NOT fitted with a DUAL VOLTAGE motor then you can still use inverter technology but as the motor requires 415V 3 phase then you will require a DUAL STAGE inverter, this is very similar to the 240V inverter product in that it changes your 220V single phase in to three phase BUT it also boost's the voltage up from 220V to 415V, On the downside of this because the DUAL STAGE inverters are twice as complex as the SINGLE STAGE 220V output units and working at higher voltages they tend to be far more expensive than the BASIC 240V versions and if its practical to change the motor to a modern DUAL VOLTAGE type then often you can get a package of motor and inverter for less than the cost of the DUAL STAGE 415V output inverter, where these DUAL STAGE inverters often prove most useful are in cases where its not practical for whatever reason to change the motor for example a power feed motor where the case of the motor is part of the machines casting, Both of these inverter options will offer you other benefits as well, they have a built in SOFT START, this function will allow you to set the time it takes for the motor to reach full speed after switch on, this is good for your machine as it reduces the shock loading on the machines power train at start-up as well as reducing the surge on your incoming supply, inverters also offer you FULL SPEED CONTROL of your motor, this is very useful on some machine applications as where you would normally need to change belts to alter the chuck speed now you can simply turn a knob and the inverter will change the speed for you, these inverters also feature a brake function to slow down the motor after you stop it, this is great for say woodwork machines where having this function enabled will allow the machine to comply with HSE regulations by stopping the blade within the 10 seconds as required,If you are looking to power a whole workshop or if you machines contain electronics like welders or CNC machines then you need to look at either the modern DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTER option or the old fashioned ROTARY PHASE CONVERTER for those on a tight budget with a less demanding application,
A ROTARY CONVERTER is not the perfect phase converter but its one step up from the STATIC, the term ROTARY comes from the fact that these have an internal motor running and this is used to assist the unit produce the third "PHANTOM" phase, this phase if often not at the ideal voltage or even the correct phase shift that TRUE 3 phase requires BUT its close enough for a large range of less demanding applications and its cheaper to purchase than the DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTER systems, on the down side the unit is noisy because of the internal motor running and that motor is using power all the time even if you are not running any machines from the converter, the amount of power wasted gets worse the bigger the converter due to the larger motor being powered, also due to the miss matched phase and voltage output from the rotary phase converter you will loose a small amount power and the motors wont be running as smooth as if they were running from a true 3 phase supply like the DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTER will give you,
For small hobby applications on a tight budget this may well be acceptable as the converter will often be at the lower end of the power range for converters so the constant power waste will be smaller AND its often not a problem for a hobby user to turn the converter off when its not in use and then switch it on again when they need to use one of the machines, in this case the machine being powered will often be making more noise than the converter so the noise aspect of the rotary converter will not be a problem,
Rotary converters are NOT recommended for applications requiring 3 phase power 24 hours a day
For any demanding applications where the quality of the power is important such as CNC machines, precision equipment or equipment with electronics or for industrial use where the unit may be switched on 8 hours a day or more running a workshop for example or on an application that requires a 24 hour 3 phase supply for example with ground source heating systems, pool filtration, HVAC systems, water pumping, passenger lifts etc then you should look at our DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTER systems, these DIGITAL converters have perfect phase output voltage and phase angle and they run without any pilot motor so they are very economical on power and they produce very little noise and are rated for 24/7 operation,Types of phase converter :-DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTERS
A DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTER is basically the MODERN VERSION OF THE ROTARY CONVERTER and is the best solution for today's demanding power conversion applications, These units will convert a single phase 240 Volt supply into a 415 Volts 3 phase regulated output, these digital converters are truly versatile and they are available in variants that can work from almost any supply, 210-250V is the normal input voltage range and they will give a constant output voltage over this range, you can opt for 440v or 480v BI PHASE as often found on farms and the units will work from a 50Hz or 60Hz supply and are totally happy running from a generator,The output is also adjustable, in standard form it will be 415V 50Hz 3 phase but you can have anywhere between 200V and 480V 3 phase at 50Hz or 60Hz and even 400Hz is available as an option to enable the powering of for example military equipment or high frequency grinding tools as often found in a founders fettling shop and woodworking routers and spindle moulders are another example where often a DIGITAL PHASE CONVERTER can replace a noisy, inefficient and unreliable motorized frequency changer, in its basic form as long as your machine requires a 3 phase + earth supply and consists of just motors and control gear you can simply plug in your machine to the converters output and run it hence the term PLUG
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