240V/120V American current

[dennisgb45]

I have some American 120V appliances. In America all houses have 240V to the breaker panel. Then only one leg of that is used for normal wall outlets and lights at 120V. We use both legs for things such as electricd range, hot water heaters, clothes driers etc at 240V. My question is: Can this be done in Thailand? I understand it would still be only 50 cycle instead of 60 cycle. I am trying to avoid use of a stepdown transformer.. Note: My house has only 2 cables coming in from the pole. Single phase, but 3 phase is on the poles. Thanks

[Crossy]

Nope.

Thailand is 3-phase, 4-wire, 220V phase-neutral, there is no 115V anywhere in the system.

You need a transformer.

[dennisgb45]

Nope.

Thailand is 3-phase, 4-wire, 220V phase-neutral, there is no 115V anywhere in the system.

You need a transformer.

It is not all 3 phase 4 wire. I have single phase 2 wire. 3 phase was installed to the poles about 5 months ago, but not brought to existing houses. But I do believe you are correct about not being able to split it as we do in America. Thanks

[wayned]

Crossy is right there is no 115vac anywhere. You need a step down transformer. In a three phase system each phase is 220vac.

[lopburi3]

You will need a transformer to step down voltage if equipment does not already have that ability itself and most motor appliances (such as blenders and fans) will operate about 20% slow due to the 50hz AC here. The old AC clocks are useless here - but believe most modern clocks have DC power for timekeeping.

As for single phase that is what is normal for a home but the outside transformer will be three phase and other homes will be using the other phase - hopefully in about equal proportion.

[Crossy]

Nope.

Thailand is 3-phase, 4-wire, 220V phase-neutral, there is no 115V anywhere in the system.

You need a transformer.

It is not all 3 phase 4 wire. I have single phase 2 wire. 3 phase was installed to the poles about 5 months ago, but not brought to existing houses. But I do believe you are correct about not being able to split it as we do in America. Thanks

The 3-phase 3-wire you see on the poles is 25kV (note the big insulators), that really will make your kit light up.

Once it's been through the transformer to provide the 3-phase supplied to homes and businesses it gets a neutral and becomes 4-wire. 220V phase-neutral, 380v phase-phase.

EDIT Just re-read your post, you are correct, it's not ALL 4-wire. There are a few villages with 3-phase, 3-wire 220V phase-phase (like the Philippines [which is 60Hz] and a fair bit of mainland Europe) but these should be being phased out, certainly no new installations should be 3-wire.

EDIT 2 Just to clarify, single-phase (2-wire) is provided by using the neutral and one of the phases.

[bankruatsteve]

Just to add... The states also has 3-phase but domestic supply is usually one phase which is grounded in the transformer at the half-winding. So, the 3 wires you have in the states is neutral (from the ground in transformer) and 2 live (one from each side of the transformer). Your question was: "Can this be done in Thailand?" No.

And, if you have appliances that are 'switchable' or automatic voltage you won't need transformer, but anything with a motor in it just won't run properly or will burn out in a few months even with transformer so you may as well save the cost of that and get new appliances.