American appliances in Ireland

Kerry19

Hi,
First post, thanks in advance for any advice!
I live in America at the moment but plan on returning to Ireland in the next few years. I'm currently building a house in Ireland and am thinking of shipping a container home with furniture and appliances.
Obviously American appliances run on 110v and Ireland runs at 220v.
The question I have is "is it possible to run a few electrical outlets at 110v in Ireland straight from the electrical panel? Is there such a thing as a step down electrical breaker or a transformer that can be installed in the panel to drop the voltage to 110v? The house is a new build and there is no wiring done as yet.
If it is possible and not too much of a big deal, I would be hoping to ship most of the appliances home.

Thanks for any advice.

Bruthal

Overall you would probably be better getting appliances here.

It is possible to install 110v power, but it will be expensive enough compared to just getting new appliances. If you were powering small items, a small transformer will do, it might be cheaper than a large appliance 110v setup, but still expensive to buy and install with proper 110v outlets, compared to just replacing appliances.

Bigger appliances are more expensive to replace with 230v ones, but the 110v setup to power them will also be more expensive.

Then eventually, will the 110v system become redundant? As appliances need replacing, will you replace them with 230 volt ones?

Anyway it is possible to install a 110v transformer somewhere in the house, and wire 110v outlets from it. But it won't be a small item you can install in the panel. It will be a proper 230v to 110v/115v transformer, powered from your panel, then back to mcbs for the 110v circuits. Then out to the outlets. Size of transformer depends on amount/sizes of appliances.

coylemj

Bruthal wrote: »

Then eventually, will the 110v system become redundant? As appliances need replacing, will you replace them with 230 volt ones?

+1 For a new build you will realistically have to lay on 110v and 220v supplies in the kitchen for all the large appliances because they will all eventually need to be replaced. For the cooker (stove) that will mean two 25A circuits and big red switches plus dual sockets for the dishwasher, washing machine, fridge/freezer etc. If you're going to bring toasters, food mixers and kettles, you'll also need to double up on sockets at the worktop.

If you have a small appliance that would be expensive to replace like a Kitchenaid then by all means bring it and you can use a small transformer but I'd leave the rest behind.

Kerry19

Sounds like it will be as handy to get everything at home then. I was hoping it would just be a case of running wiring everywhere for 220v and be able to step down a few outlets to 110v at the panel . And when the appliances need to be replaced as they eventually will the 110v outlets could be changed to 220v as the wiring would already have being installed to handle 220v.
(I would assume cable rated for 220v would power 110v outlets without an issue)
As far as I know a few West Indian islands have 220v to the house and then everything is converted to 110v.

But, sounds like it's more hassle than it's worth and the money spent doing it will probably buy what I want in Ireland.

Thanks very much for the help guys.

Stoner

It's better that you are getting the goods here now.


We use a higher voltage, so the current we need to power items is only half that used in the states as the power used is the voltage multiplied by the current. So cables can be smaller here, the switching around situation you are talking about would not apply here, I don't know what they did elsewhere but the principal is as outlined above. We use different frequencies too, this can be significant with some types of motor.

Many of your smaller electronic charges will auto select between voltages.

Man of Aran

Don't forget Hz also , it's not just a voltage issue.... USA is 60 Hertz whereas here is 50. This will be significant in products where A/c motor speed is critical/ significant as RPM is proportional to frequency. Skil Saws, drills, fridge capacity due to slower compressor, Old VHS tape players, not sure if DVD playback systems exhibit noticeable effect.

Step up/ down transformers do nothing to resolve this (Hz variance).
<just saw Stoner addressed this point also>

Bruthal

Man of Aran wrote: »

Don't forget Hz also , it's not just a voltage issue.... USA is 60 Hertz whereas here is 50. This will be significant in products where A/c motor speed is critical/ significant as RPM is proportional to frequency. Skil Saws, drills, fridge capacity due to slower compressor, Old VHS tape players, not sure if DVD playback systems exhibit noticeable effect.

Step up/ down transformers do nothing to resolve this (Hz variance).
<just saw Stoner addressed this point also>

Skill saws and drill motors and similar will be unaffected by frequency.

Induction motors are frequency dependent. Drills and the like have universal motors, the rpm of which are more voltage dependant. An unloaded universal motor reaches its max rpm for a given supply voltage when the back emf generated by the rotor gets close to the supply voltage. The back emf can't quite reach the supply voltage much the same way as an induction motor can't quite reach synchronous rpm.