Voltage Says " 230~ "

Aarondv1

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I'm moving my whole desk top that I assembled in China (where I've been living) back home to the US.
Over here the Voltage in the appartment is 210.

My computer power supply has a socket that I can switch out for one that will work back home, but I'm not sure if I can use this Power Supply unit (PSUs 'wide voltage’ ) or am I going to have to switch out the PSU...

This is a screenshot of the Chinese PSU.
TEhtE
 
Since it has passive PFC, unless it has the red switch in the back to switch from 230v to 115v, you cannot use that in America.
 
Since it has passive PFC, unless it has the red switch in the back to switch from 230v to 115v, you cannot use that in America.

^ In practice, this is correct. It is possible for them to make a passive PFC PSU with a wide input voltage range and no switch, but no company that I know of would bother spending that kind of money designing a product when they could simply use active PFC.

However, OP, you say you're moving back to the US but you say 210v? Nothing in the US is 210v. You mean 120v, correct?


Edit: And in case you were wondering, the tilde in the "230~" means AC. Supply voltage is sinusoidal which looks sort of like the tilde.
 
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You could almost definitely run this on a 240v breaker in the US (I won't say definitely because 50Hz vs 60Hz but almost anything that works on AC50Hz will also work on 60Hz) but since you say it's an apartment

No because 240V here =! 240V elsewhere. 240V here is two hots and a neutral (or in newer building code, two hots a neutral and a ground.) That also means it's a two phase supply since both hots are 180 degrees out of phase from each other.

240V elsewhere in the world is only a single phase supply (one hot, one neutral and a ground.)

Even if you could make some sort of dangerous adapter to get both hots and a ground on the PSU, it'd probably instantly vaporize in a blinding flash of light.

The safest solution if the PSU doesn't have a voltage switch is to get another PSU that does work on US mains.
 
At that price you may as well get a cheap CX430 or XFX 550. Both are under $30 AR when on sale.
 
No because 240V here =! 240V elsewhere. 240V here is two hots and a neutral (or in newer building code, two hots a neutral and a ground.) That also means it's a two phase supply since both hots are 180 degrees out of phase from each other.

240V elsewhere in the world is only a single phase supply (one hot, one neutral and a ground.)

Even if you could make some sort of dangerous adapter to get both hots and a ground on the PSU, it'd probably instantly vaporize in a blinding flash of light.

The safest solution if the PSU doesn't have a voltage switch is to get another PSU that does work on US mains.

Just out of curiosity as I travel internationally quite a bit and haven't run across that yet, what country are you located in?
 
Just out of curiosity as I travel internationally quite a bit and haven't run across that yet, what country are you located in?

You'll never come across it unless you start ripping large appliances out, because that's the only thing 240V two phase is used for in homes. The most common being clothes dryers, large window air conditioners and stove/oven units.

nema-10-30r-jpg.60507


The two top spades are hots and the bottom L is neutral. This style of plug was made obsolete in 1996, but it's still in common use.

One of the common replacements is the 14-30:

LEVITON-AL-CU-30A-125-250V-NEMA-14-30-DRYER-OUTLET.jpg


Again, the two spades are hots, the L is neutral and the hole on the top that looks like an inverted mailbox is ground.
 
Thanks,
No Red Switch
Probably going to switch out the PSU for American Voltage,

or just assemble a new computer when I get back home.
Good reason not to lug a desktop across the globe.
 
Thanks,
No Red Switch
Probably going to switch out the PSU for American Voltage,

or just assemble a new computer when I get back home.
Good reason not to lug a desktop across the globe.

I'd suggest grabbing one with adaptive voltage (almost certainly will be Active PFC), that way you won't have the problem again.
 
No because 240V here =! 240V elsewhere. 240V here is two hots and a neutral (or in newer building code, two hots a neutral and a ground.) That also means it's a two phase supply since both hots are 180 degrees out of phase from each other.

240V elsewhere in the world is only a single phase supply (one hot, one neutral and a ground.)

Even if you could make some sort of dangerous adapter to get both hots and a ground on the PSU, it'd probably instantly vaporize in a blinding flash of light.

The safest solution if the PSU doesn't have a voltage switch is to get another PSU that does work on US mains.

This +1 because people think America only uses 120v.

Some houses also are 3 phase power with a "high leg". 120/208/120 and you'll get 240 between each set. I've heard remodel stories where the electrician hooked up plugs and lights onto a high-leg. Hair dryers, lightbulbs, TVs, etc do not like that. I've had to go behind some guys a few times to fix it.

Also some businesses have a 120/277/120 system (typically for machines), or even a 277/480/277 (277/480) system. Many parking lot lights are wired for 480 because it means they can run smaller wire to cover the same wattage at a higher voltage at smaller amperage (Read Ohms Law). For the record 277v on one line hurts, 480v messed up my thumb once because I was stupid (that was 3 years ago).

<hijack>
Here's a parking lot light contactor cabinet I had to maintain (one out of many at other places). 277/480. 288,000W capacity. Actual lighting was 257,000W worth of lighting. I didnt wire it, but I wasn't going to rearrange everything.
dhpl.jpg


</hijack>
 
I hate wild leg (277v). I've had to work on some lights and emergency exit signs that ran on it. The wiring was all non-standard and getting replacement parts was ridiculously expensive compared to standard 120v mains.

I also used to run film projectors that ran on three phase 480. The power supplies were as big as a full tower PC case and weighed darn near 200 lb. I had a couple of them fail spectacularly, they exploded and sent purple and orange blobs of metal flying in all directions with various pieces of components following suit.
 
That also means it's a two phase supply since both hots are 180 degrees out of phase from each other.

no

we have no "2 phase" unless you are using 2 phases of a 3 phase system, which you won't find in 99% of homes

you can have 3 wire 220 (hot/hot/neutral) and 4 wire 220 (hot/hot/neutral/ground)

residential systems are 240v transformers center tapped to give you 120/120
 
240V two phase

Not to be pedantic, but US nominal 240V residential service is in fact single phase.

We "split" the phase grounding against each pole to get 120 nominal.

edit/ I see FLECOM beat me to it, he is correct

edit2/ I just realized that this is the same guy that is claiming here that it is impossible to rework a GPU in the oven so...
 
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Not to be pedantic, but US nominal 240V residential service is in fact single phase.

We "split" the phase grounding against each pole to get 120 nominal.

edit/ I see FLECOM beat me to it, he is correct

edit2/ I just realized that this is the same guy that is claiming here that it is impossible to rework a GPU in the oven so...

Oh you're one of those people. So butthurt about a topic that you have to go into a completely different topic about something completely unrelated to try and make a point.

It's not working, but keep trying hon.
 
Not to be pedantic, but US nominal 240V residential service is in fact single phase.

We "split" the phase grounding against each pole to get 120 nominal.

edit/ I see FLECOM beat me to it, he is correct

edit2/ I just realized that this is the same guy that is claiming here that it is impossible to rework a GPU in the oven so...

As much as it pains me to admit it but as an electrician i can confirm 240V residential is in fact 2 phases just as goof ball said...hes a troll but he did get this fact correct and in fact even listed all the wires on the plugs correct
Is it possible you were thinking of standard wall outlets? Now that would only use a single phase or one of the 2 that runs to all american homes.
 
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no

we have no "2 phase" unless you are using 2 phases of a 3 phase system, which you won't find in 99% of homes

you can have 3 wire 220 (hot/hot/neutral) and 4 wire 220 (hot/hot/neutral/ground)

residential systems are 240v transformers center tapped to give you 120/120

while i sort of agree with you but these two hots are different phases and while the current code book might label it differently....i cant see how you can call it a single phase since if you read hot wire to hot wire it will read around 240v and this is not possible with only one phase or one wire at least not in any american home i have seen.
 
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single phase

center tapped

02169.png


i guess you referring to this? technically your correct i see but it s more than a bit confusing i guess when you measure the different hots and i guess they just appear to be different phases? its not like any meter can tell the difference right? lol i give it to you for being correct but, they dam sure measure as different phases in the home it self.....interesting
 
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