power supply question

[omkar]

hey everyone.
trying to get an idea on what it'll cost me to upgrade my electric supply to my welder.
my mig welder goes up to 155 amps and im running it off a normal house supply. (im not sure about the power ratings on the supply)

but my fuse trips when i use the highest setting. what upgrades do i need to do to my electrical system to be able to run (minimum) my 155 amp welder, a chop saw, and lights at the same time. is it just a matter of changing the fuse. or should i be looking at running some new circuits???

i really appreciate any help you guys can give me on this matter.

 

[piman]

Hello Omkar,

I see you are in Holland so may have slightly different equipment than the U.K..

When you say run your chop saw and welder together I take it that you have someone else in the workshop? If that is unlikely then you only need capacity for your welder and lights. What is the input load of your welder, say for the sake of argument 16 amps, then you need a 16 amp supply minmum and the lights are normally (in the U.K.) on a separate 6 amp supply. The breakers we use in the U.K have different time curves for different application, normal domestic breakers are B rated. For more inducrtive loads with a high surge current, C or D types would be used. The current rating doesn't change but the time they can carry an overload increases with the C or D. That is the sort of situation you have with a welder or chop saw, so it could be that your supply is adequate for current rating but cannot cope with higher peak starting currents.

I hope this explains some of the factors that determine a supply, so if you can tell us what breakers (I know you said fuse but you also said trip) you have and the input size of your welder, amps, KVA or KW then we'll have a better idea?

Alec

 

[omkar]

thanks

that info is actually really helpful.
however right now im in belgium for the week and i return to holland on friday.
so i will have that info for you on friday.
thanks alot again for the info

 

[Faaluke]

To give you an idea, I just had a plug wired into my garage for the same reason. New wire run thats thicker than normal, higher rated circuit breaker etc all wired to a 20A plug (10A is standard here in NZ)

 

[omkar]

power supply

hey guys.

jus checked my breakers. the breaker that runs the shed says B 16. everything else written on the breaker are 10 digit numbers.
im guessing B is the type of breaker and 16 is the amps. (i dont know )

220 Volt, 1 fase
its range is 28 - 155 Ampere
in 7 stages. i trip the breaker on the seventh setting when i try to weld 4.5 m steel.

i just read the machine and it has - U1 22ov, I1- 22A.

what do you guys think?

 

[brightspark]

hey guys.

jus checked my breakers. the breaker that runs the shed says B 16. everything else written on the breaker are 10 digit numbers.
im guessing B is the type of breaker and 16 is the amps. (i dont know )

220 Volt, 1 fase
its range is 28 - 155 Ampere
in 7 stages. i trip the breaker on the seventh setting when i try to weld 4.5 m steel.

i just read the machine and it has - U1 22ov, I1- 22A.

what do you guys think?

u could increase the size of the breaker to a 20 amp but that would depend on the size of the cable feeding the shed . the minimum size cable feeding shed would have to be 2.5mm to upgrade to a 20 amp breaker from 16amp

 

[omkar]

thanks alot. im going to check that out now.

thanks for the advice

 

[Dr pepper]

If you uprate the wiring to the shed you might cause other issues.
You'd really need a consumer unit in the shed feeding seperate loads, as the wiring for each circuit may not be then rated high enough for the 20a breaker.

Another simpler way would be to replace the 16a breaker for a 20a (so long as the cable feeding the shed is 2.5mm or bigger) and then check the wiring in the shed and replace any wiring less than 2.5mm with 2.5mm including the lights, might not be best practice but it would be safer as any of the shed wiring can then handle the trip current.