Convert a 220V 50Hz to accept life in NA in a 110V 60 Hz World

[PB500]

I have a Euro Boat, 220V 50 Hz and I’m sailing home to Canada via the Caribbean. Does any one have suggestions as to making this home port transition?
I have a lot of systems such as 3 air conditioning units, 2 refrigeration systems, a 2000 W inverter, 2 battery chargers, 2 shore power connections and several 220 V appliances including a 220V washer. My Generator is easily convertible from 220v to 110 v and from 50 Hz to 60 Hz.

I’m thinking - leave it all alone and simply instal a 110V - 220V Step up Transformer with a 60-50 Hz cycle convertor, if there is such a thing.

Any good ideas and advice would be appreciated.

[smac999]

there is such a thing. IE an atlas. about $10,000... and you'd need a crane to lift it in.

there is no easy way to do it.


I would intend to hook it up to 240v 60hz. then you may have to replace some of your appliances with 60hz ones. some may work on 50/60.

you'd want to involve a professinal to help work through it.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by PB500

I have a Euro Boat, 220V 50 Hz and I’m sailing home to Canada via the Caribbean. Does any one have suggestions as to making this home port transition?
I have a lot of systems such as 3 air conditioning units, 2 refrigeration systems, a 2000 W inverter, 2 battery chargers, 2 shore power connections and several 220 V appliances including a 220V washer. My Generator is easily convertible from 220v to 110 v and from 50 Hz to 60 Hz.

I’m thinking - leave it all alone and simply instal a 110V - 220V Step up Transformer with a 60-50 Hz cycle convertor, if there is such a thing.

Any good ideas and advice would be appreciated.

The voltage step-up is trivial, there are several sub-$1000 systems that do it, google Victron isolation transformer for example. The 50 to 60 Hz conversion is more problematic. Your 50 Hz appliances won't blow up on 60 Hz, although if you asked 10 people you'd get 10 different opinions about what would happen. If the choice is to replace them all now or replace them earlier than you otherwise would have because the 60 Hz shortened their life (the most likely impact if any) it would make sense to just keep them until they fail and replace them then.
If you decide to go 110 you do need to ensure the wiring is sized for the increased amperage you'll need, or deal with only being able to carry half the load in watts as you could before. Many new production boats made in Europe just wire them all with the appropriate gauge for 110V, I know my Mahe 36 is wired that way so the conversion was relatively easy, so you'll want to check that for yours. There's quite a few threads here about this as well, I know I've gone into some detail on it in the past, so you might want to check those.

[billknny]

I have a 220V/50Hz AC boat in North America and use a simple isolation transformer to step up the 110V/60Hz to 220V60Hz. Virtually everything works just fine at the higher frequency, including our 2 AC units.

There are other ways of setting up a boat to run "world wide", but they are significant redesigns from what you have.

If there is something with a fussy electronic controller (laundry washers are notorious!) you can disconnect shore power and run that off the 50HZ inverter. You will need to check with each of the manufacturers to be sure for each piece of gear. Be sure, there are a few pieces of gear that will fry at the higher frequency. Motors typically just run a bit faster, which is actually better than the other way round.

Converting the whole boat to 110/60 can be a nightmare. I know--I just did one and it was a simple boat without any of the gear you list and I billed almost 60 hours.

You really SHOULD have an isolation transformer anyway.

[Dsanduril]

There are so many options here, and so much dependence on your actual system that there is no easy answer. For us, we simply installed a battery charger that can take in 110V/60Hz and then run all our 220/50Hz appliances from the inverter. As long as the battery charger can supply enough power (or the batteries + charger can keep up) then that's all you need to do. We have (relatively) simple system with few appliances and this works great - for us.

But I suspect at least the aircon won't run off your 2k inverter, so then you get to decide if you try them at 60Hz or not. They may work or they may have issues, depends too much on exact construction.

Switching to 110/120V may be a bigger issue if wired originally for 220V, but as redneckrob says, if the wires were oversized to help deal with just this eventuality then no big deal. All depends on the boat and how it was wired (personally I've never seen a Euro boat wired this way, but it could be done). Some marinas in North America have 240V available, but it is not universal, so also depends on how universal you want to have it.

And, as noted above, there are frequency converters, they are both expensive and heavy in a size suitable for all of your gear. You can look into them (try Georator, MDS Power, or ATO Automation to get an idea) but I suspect that you'll find it easier/cheaper to spend the same money on converting any appliances that are unhappy with 60Hz.

[billknny]

Actually, circuits for 220V are actually normally protected and wire sized for a max of 16 amps, so can be swapped out to a 15 AMP 110 circuit without issue.

They aren't "oversized" for potential conversion to 110, that just the continental standard.

Be very careful accepting advice on this topic. There are a lot of people who are knowledgeable and well versed in 110V wiring (or 220V) who are very willing to give advice about the OTHER voltage where they have very little actual knowledge or experience on practices and standards from the other side of the ocean.

For example, while it is TRUE that a 240V feed is widely available in USA marinas, that is supplied by two 120V phases that are 180 degrees out of phase with each other. It CAN work as a feed to a 220V boat, but ONLY if the boat was wired to safely accept two hot wires instead of a hot and a neutral. The key to doing this safely is having double pole breakers on ALL circuits. Not a modification to make without REALLY understanding the ramifications.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by billknny

Actually, circuits for 220V are actually normally protected and wire sized for a max of 16 amps, so can be swapped out to a 15 AMP 110 circuit without issue.

They aren't "oversized" for potential conversion to 110, that just the continental standard....

True as far as it goes, but the concern we are discussing is using similar 110V equipment on the circuits designed for 220V. Sure, if you use 15A at 110V then the 16A Euro cabling will be fine. But if you have an air conditioning unit or water heater that draws 10A at 220V, and you want to have similar function then you'll need something that draws 20A at 110V. The existing circuit, unless specifically designed for conversion will contain wires that are too small.