3 phase at home?

[RedOrZed]

Now that we've exchanged contracts on the new house (after merely needing to scream at everyone involved until hoarse), I'd like to ask the board's opinion on getting 3 phase laid into my new garage?

I'm looking to get flexibility with stuff like lathes/mills/plasma cutters etc. Only for hobby use, nothing industrial.

Is it cheaper/better to get a decent size inverter, or to talk to 'leccy board and get the real stuff piped in?

Cheers!

Zed

 

[madkayaker]

talk to the board but sit down first

 

[mike os]

Inverter

 

[brightspark]

u might be lucky u might not if it passes under the path outside your house it will still be expensive. well over a grand i would have thought. the board round our way charged 300 quid to conect the 3 phase tails up into the meter that was allready there i wouldnt care i have the seals and coulda dun it meself

 

[madkayaker]

have had it when its been cheaper that invter and sevelar thousand

 

[malcolm]

Certainly ask the suppliers for a price before doing any planning or machine buying. Despite all 3 phases being handy in residential areas you could be looking at £10K to have it installed. If you've bought a nice place in the country where the phases aren't handy you might be looking at £30K.

What are the current typical prices? - could have it wrong - 10K might be the countryside price in which case it could be cheaper.

 

[RedOrZed]

Inverter time it is then! It's a city place, next to a pathway. But 10k is more than I can think about. 1k would have been worth saving for. Ah well.

Thanks all!

 

[madkayaker]

ask first piped in is a lot better that inverters as there is no loss of torque due to lower voltage

 

[brightspark]

to be honest the last one i got conected it cost the guy 3 and a half grand it was put 10meters from the footpath in duct. the price goes up if the cable and fuses need to be more than 80 amp . if your in the country they charge by the amount of poles they fit plus half the price of the transformer which can be up to 10k

 

[madkayaker]

a customer of mine was once quoted 58K for a single phase we did it for 15K 10 of which was for the 200m of big cable

 

[langy]

I use digital inverters to power up my 3 phase stuff, they work really well but you need to get one that is bigger than what say your lathe requires, example my Colchester lathe is 3hp so i run it off a 4hp inverter.

There a firm on Ebay called Digital Convertors/Inverters who are excellent for price and advice

 

[brightspark]

I use digital inverters to power up my 3 phase stuff, they work really well but you need to get one that is bigger than what say your lathe requires, example my Colchester lathe is 3hp so i run it off a 4hp inverter.

There a firm on Ebay called Digital Convertors/Inverters who are excellent for price and advice

is your inverter 240v 3 phase delta or 415 v star? 3 phase

 

[langy]

Got one of each

is your inverter 240v 3 phase delta or 415 v star? 3 phase

 

[brightspark]

Got one of each

what is the hp rating of the 415v and how much ??

 

[langy]

4hp i got it for £425, a lot of money i thought at the time but i have since got a 3hp polisher and a bandsaw that i also run of it, not all at the same time though.

what is the hp rating of the 415v and how much ??

 

[brightspark]

4hp i got it for £425, a lot of money i thought at the time but i have since got a 3hp polisher and a bandsaw that i also run of it, not all at the same time though.

415 is better in respect of machines with 415 transformers to run the contactors that have 110v coils fitted and allso 415 solenoids and motor brakes cant be run on the 240v model;s it saves canibalizing the controlls as well

 

[langy]

Slow down sparky you lost me there

I'm not much good with electrics so just do and get what my electrician friend says. My Colchester runs off the original start/stop switches whereas my Polisher had the switches bypassed and it soft starts off the inverter run button, does that make sense ???

415 is better in respect of machines with 415 transformers to run the contactors that have 110v coils fitted and allso 415 solenoids and motor brakes cant be run on the 240v model;s it saves canibalizing the controlls as well

 

[brightspark]

Slow down sparky you lost me there

I'm not much good with electrics so just do and get what my electrician friend says. My Colchester runs off the original start/stop switches whereas my Polisher had the switches bypassed and it soft starts off the inverter run button, does that make sense ???

yep

 

[R BEADLE]

cheaper to get a big three phase Genny . if your not planning on using a three phase welder then a good inverter would be the cheapest option .

 

[Highway_Star]

I actually have 3 phase in the house, only 1 connected and in use, but in our leccy cupboard there is on almighty cable coming up from the ground, which splits into 3. We have 3 main fuses, but only on in use. The others are live and are different phases, I've checked.

I'll bet it'd still cost a King's ransom if I actually wanted to use 3 phase though.