I will be hopefully visiting America later this year. I have some electrical items.
The `infamous netbook`, the mains supply transformer states 100 to 240 volts. The other an electric shaver with no details on it so could be 240v only.
Should the laptop be ok to be charging over there on 110v. If shaver is 240 volts only would it run but slower.
Also for charging phones will they charge but at a slower rate.
yes
I'd expect it to be more like a rough plucking, than a shave
Should just take more current from the mains (or take it for a larger fraction of the mains cycle) and charge the same.
Things that you connect to the mains almost always show what voltage they will accept and how much power they may draw, so it is best to look at each device. In America the frequency is 60 mHz compared to 50 Hz in Europe. If you want to know about your electric shaver google or the manufacturer should know. The USB PSU I have to hand says it would work with 110v, 60 Hz so would charge at the normal rate.
Not sure it's quite that low! 0.06 Hz?
It will be ok.
Why not try it over here? Can't you find anyone with a bathroom power supply for shavers? They always seem to have dual voltage outlets. I've even seen them in public toilets in shopping malls and airports.
No. They will have a SMPS like your Netbook supply, and will work the same way in the UK and USA.
of course
no. If it's rechargeable with lightweight psu it'll work. If it's a direct mains only it won't.
assuming you're using a lightweight wallwart, won't be affected. Old heavy warts won't work at all.
NT
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com expressed precisely :
Some none battery / mains only types have a DC motor, running on a built in SMPSU. I think I am correct in suggesting one of my old Phillishaves could be run on both ac and dc, from 240v to dc as low as
12v. I always meant to try it on 12v, but never did.
It will try to run at 60Hz rather than 50Hz and may not work at all.
Famous brand rubbish US made mains shavers sold in the UK mostly at Xmas used to rely on a 60Hz mechanical resonance to work properly. Once most people tried a proper European made shaver they never went back.
A decent proportion of hotel bathrooms have 240v ac available in them.
Most PSUs for phones and laptops really don't care about the mains input voltage provided that it is above 100v and below 260v. OTOH Some US made kit is notorious for only working on US 110v mains at 60Hz (transformers that will saturate on 50Hz supply) with shoddy transformers and insulation that is barely up to the job.
Quite possibly, though maybe 220 V (two anti-phase 110 V supplies, as is supplied to houses to run high-power devices like aircon, tumble driers, cookers).
However I'd still expect it to be 60 Hz, not 50 Hz. Depending on how much the transformers or coils in motors are tuned, they may or may not work at
60 if there are designed for 50.
OK thanks all, a couple of adaptors and I should be good to go.
60hz works on 50hz transformers. The reverse is less lilkely to be true
Ah, OK. I thought it might be a reciprocal arrangement, but evidently it's not.
I wonder how US came to standardise on 60 Hz and Europe on 50 Hz in the first place.
Is it generally 50 Hz => 230 V (+/- tolerances) and 60 Hz => 110 V (+/- tolerances) or are there some countries which have standardised on 230 V @
60 Hz or 110 V @ 50 Hz?In my innocence, I thought that 240 V implied bayonet light bulb fittings and 110 V implied Edison screw light bulb fittings... Until I first went round IKEA and couldn't work out why a Swedish (and so 230 V/50 Hz) country would stock only screw-fitting light bulbs. Then I learned that we in the UK are in the minority, and many countries *both 110 V and 230 V* use the same screw fittings.
Incidentally, if you are buying SES (female) to SBC (male) or to LBC (male), look out for a design flaw that we encountered with some cheap converters (probably of Chinese origin): the central spring contact which should touch the tip of the ES bulb, also makes contact with the sleeve of the bulb as it is pushed in when the bulb is screwed in. Result: a loud bang and the MCB (and maybe RDC) trips. Happened to us with several converters of one make, so they are going back to Amazon with a note "DANGEROUS PRODUCT: WITHDRAW FROM SALE".
Even more incidentally, when you are installing Philips Hue bulbs, or other similar ones which are capable of being turned off at the bulb even though there is power to the socket, don't make the mistake that I did as I was rewiring the GU10 adaptors up in the bedroom ceiling. Remember that even though none of the bulbs are lit, there may still be power. I'd been so good about turning off both the wall switch and the relevant MCB, apart from the one time I forgot... 240V through a finger is not to be recommended, even for the regulation 30 msec before the RCD trips.
There's Japan which is 100V, and 50Hz in some places, 60Hz in others.
no, a transformer needs more steel to run at 50Hz than 60.
they had more sense
mostly
Japan has 100v at both 50Hz & 60Hz. US supplies 220v at 60Hz as well as 110.
110v & 230v ES are different sizes, but so close that you can still get bulbs into the wrong size socket, albeit with resulting problems! The Victorians still have a thing or 2 to answer for.Lightbulb adaptors have always not been designed right & very prone to not working. No BS ever standardised them. A percentage are fundamentally unsafe.
NT
I didn't write that!
Montserrat uses 230V @ 60Hz.
John
Thought it was 115V 60hz..
In message <qgsvqu$oht$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, NY snipped-for-privacy@privacy.invalid writes
There's a current thread in one of the UK amateur radio forums, where the following links were given. They make interesting reading (especially the second one).
In answer to the comment above, when considering iron cored transformers, the maximum power you can transmit is the energy stored in the magnetic material times the frequency.
That means if a transformer is pared to the bone on 60Hz it would overload on 50Hz.
Think you?ll find it?s 120V @ 60Hz.
Tim
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