3 Phase Power from Single Phase

DaktologistDaktologist Global Moderator
edited September 2011 in Life
Make your own Phase Converter




In this guide I will show you a simple way of producing 3 phase electricity from a single phase supply.

Firstly, Only attempt this if you know exactly what you are doing. Totse.info and myself are not responsible if you somehow manage to electrocute yourself, damage your equipment or burn your house/workshop and otherwise fuck this up.

So you have gone out and brought a 3 phase lathe or something and you only have single phase available. Getting 3 phase service installed is expensive although a 3 phase electric motor isn't as expensive. Basically you will need to buy a motor that has a higher rating than your equipment, for example your tool has a 2.5 HP motor. You would be best to buy a 3 HP motor and connect it as shown.

Idler.png

As you see you provide single phase across the L and N points and connect your 3 phase load across L1,L2 and L3. Of course the motor will not start on its own and will need to be spun up to speed with a drill or other single phase motor or started using start capacitors to create the correct phase shift for starting. Once the motor is running you can start your 3 phase equipment.


As you will see in the pictures below are how I built mine.

SAM_1049.jpg

The motor used is an old 400 volt 2 HP pump motor wired in delta to 230 v single phase. The single phase supply comes in on the orange cable and 3 phase leaves on the black cable.

SAM_1044.jpg

SAM_1043.jpg

As you can see the voltages aren't equal. By adding capacitors you can correct this difference and produce clean 3 phase electricity. I have never had problems running motors though.

SAM_1031.jpg

The 3 phase supply enters a motor start contactor through the bottom red,white,blue wires. the brown and blue provide power to the coils in the contactor. The load which in this case is a small motor is connected via the red,yellow,blue wires at the top. The red and black wires on the left provide 100 volts DC to the coils in the contactor.


Daktologist.

Comments

  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited September 2011
    Thanks man! I suck at these things but it's good to know someone here can work with em. +1
  • dr rockerdr rocker Regular
    edited September 2011
    This is one of the most useful posts I have ever come across on this site. Its easily googleable, but I did not know about it - if I come across any cheap 3 phase kit - which comes up often enough - with this idea I would not disregard buying it.

    Would it work with a welder / plasma cutter?
  • dr rockerdr rocker Regular
    edited September 2011
    mandingo wrote: »
    stupid questions dont hate to hard.... wtf is a phase converter used for

    Converting single phase current to three phase. If that makes no sense or you do not know what single phase and three / tripple phase is, you probably should not do it as you will more than likely kill you, your family and neighbours, and your electricity distrobuter will sue your estate for the thousands/millions of £/$/e of damage you do to their equiptment.

    However, if you want to boost like a shameless whore, dont do it in a specialist forum...
  • DaktologistDaktologist Global Moderator
    edited September 2011
    dr rocker wrote: »

    Would it work with a welder / plasma cutter?

    Should do. But you will want to add capacitors across the 3 phase supply to balance the phase voltage as normally there will be some imbalance. This imbalance won't cause problems with motors however.
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