110V vs. 220V

[thirdmouse]

Several of my stationary power tools (wood tools) have motors in them that can be wired to run on either 110V or 220V. I have 220V easily available. Is there any advantage to setting them up for 220V over 110V, or does it not make any real difference?

 

[Rosco]

I am sure that someone with the right experience will chime in, but I have always heard that 220 is best if available.

 

[NAYLOR]

P = I * V

Your tools will consume half the power on 220V.

 

[Teikas Dad]

I found this on another website:

Yes there is a significant difference.
To do the same amount of work, a 110 volt electric motor will require twice the amperage as what a 220 volt electric motor will.

Power(watts)=volts X amps
which means: if you double the number of volts, the number of amps required will be half.

This makes 220 volts good for the pocket book when paying the electric bill.

 

[DHS]

I never understood 220 saving you over 110 because you pay by the watt?

 

[nate379]

Uh.. Teikas Dad.... it would cost the same.

If the equipment takes 20 amps at 120v it would be 2400 watts

That would be 10 amps at 240v, which is..... 2400 watts

 

[Teikas Dad]

Uh.. Teikas Dad.... it would cost the same.

If the equipment takes 20 amps at 120v it would be 2400 watts

That would be 10 amps at 240v, which is..... 2400 watts

I didn't make it up....I copied and pasted from another website...I thought it was a good explanation....

 

[jm1fd]

P = I * V

Your tools will consume half the power on 220V.

They will consume half the AMPERAGE on 220V...the total amount of electricity consumed (wattage) should be the same.

 

[hr824]

There is a savings in installation costs because wire sizes and breaker sizes will be smaller.

Current flow causes heat so 110v circuits have more power loss and are less efficient then 220 volt circuits although I doubt anyone would see a difference in there power bill.

Voltage drop is halved in 220 volt circuits as well doubling the distance you can go before increasing wire size to make up for it.

 

[nate379]

Yeah I was going to get into those 2 things as well, but I wasn't really sure how much, if any, of a difference it would make.

I'm sure in a production environment with an piece of equipment running nearly 24/7 a 1% savings would be noticed, but for a home owner, probably not.

My little air compressor is dual voltage, but I run it on 120v. Mainly because 120v plugs are more common. I have thrown the compressor in the truck and gone out on "service calls" before even.

 

[Stuart in MN]

For most dual voltage tools it won't make any real difference. If the motors are small enough that they will run on a regular 120vac circuit, you may as well leave them set up for 120vac - then you can plug them in anywhere and you don't have to spend money putting in dedicated 240vac receptacles for them.

 

[tdkkart]

If you have any high load 110v devices, ones that tend to make the lights in the house dim when you turn them on, switching to 220v will draw 1/2 the amperage off of that 110v lighting circuit. Less tendency to dim the lights.
Years ago we lived in an old house with knob and tube wiring. The garage was wired properly on a 60A subpanel, yet when I used my 110v welder in certain outlets it dimmed momma's reading lamp. When I went in the house she'd say "welding again??".
Switching the welder to another outlet solved the "issue".

 

[tdkkart]

Having as many tools as possible wired for 220v keeps friends and neighbors from borrowing them all the time.
A friend of mine got tired of the neighor asking to borrow his electrical tools so he switched all is tools to twist-lock plugs, even his drills and circular saws. Problem solved.
Extension cords with twist locks prevent that annoying unplugging problem.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

It is my understanding that table saws in particular, will run smoother and better on 240v. Beyond that, it really won't make much difference except that they are not as portable on 240v.

Charles

 

[bimmer1980]

the power usage will be nearly the same on either a 120 or a 240 circuit. Period.

Where you gain the benefit is in the fact of using the "high" leg instead of the "low" leg.

Think of it this way, voltage or "electrical potential" is similar to standing at the top of the mountain holding a rock. How high you are on the mountain is the same as the amount of voltage. the quantity of rocks or the size of the rock is similar to the amperage.

bottom line, that higher potential, or higher voltage, gives you a lot more potential to start an electric motor, etc.

now if you add three phase to the mix, then that opens up a whole difference realm.......

 

[bimmer1980]

I found this on another website:

Yes there is a significant difference.
To do the same amount of work, a 110 volt electric motor will require twice the amperage as what a 220 volt electric motor will.

Power(watts)=volts X amps
which means: if you double the number of volts, the number of amps required will be half.

This makes 220 volts good for the pocket book when paying the electric bill.

um.... not to pick on anyone here, but when it comes to electrical, it's better not to just copy and paste from another website without completely understanding the concepts.......

it's best to know one's limits. I've been to college for engineering and had plenty of electrical engineering classes in my day. However, I'm not an electrian, so I usually steer clear of the code questions.

thanks.

 

[lonestarmarty]

reread your amp. plate @240v L1 10w/amps ,L2 10w/amps=20 run-amps******@120v 20w/amps your watt usage is the same

 

[thirdmouse]

Power draw is the same. The current may be half but the voltage is double. Wattage and therefore cost to operate are the same. Good grief, I didn't think that needed to be explained. It looks like the consideration is for current load - several tools running at once or long power line runs. I'm just a one man small home shop guy, so those are not problems. This does clear it up for me though. I've always looked at these motors and wondered what the practical purpose was.

The funny thing is I have a 1/6 hp motor that can be wired up for either 110V @ 3A or 220V @ 1.5A. Now what was the point of designing a little 1/6 hp motor to operate on either voltage? That seems like an exercise in futility. (Actually what I would really like to do is reverse the direction of this motor. I don't know if that's possible.)

 

[Falcon67]

I prefer to have as many "big" machines on 220 as I can. Makes it easier to balance across the supply lines. I went from a 1.5HP 110V compressor to a 3 HP 220 compressor and you could easily tell it was a bit easier load on the shop feed. After wiring up the 3 phase mill with a VFD, that is THE way to go on a larger machine if you can swing it.

 

[nate379]

I don't see how that is possible. The 1.5hp 120v motor is ~1500 watts, and the 3hp 240v motor is ~3200. Both draw roughly 13 amps.

 

[luvair]

I got concerned with 220 vs 110 for personal safety if 110 can do the hand tool job properly.

 

[BlindViper]

I don't see how that is possible. The 1.5hp 120v motor is ~1500 watts, and the 3hp 240v motor is ~3200. Both draw roughly 13 amps.

The hp rating on the 240 motor is more the likely off. Or it has a start capacitor which most 110 motors don't.

 

[Gary S]

Forget all the old wives tales and whatever "someone who knows someone" told you. The HP to KW conversion doesn't use voltage at all. Power consumption is the same with 110v and 220v. There are small differences in motor efficiency between motors, but no noticable difference between running them 110v or 220v.
http://www.americanmachinist.com/Calculators/HorseToKilo.aspx

 

[D KRAGER]

220 Volt advantage = Lower amps = smaller wire = Cheaper wire

 

[tdkkart]

I got concerned with 220 vs 110 for personal safety if 110 can do the hand tool job properly.

220V is really no more dangerous than 110v. In order to get the entire 220v you have to get tangled in both 110v legs at once. Most people will get the picture after they get hold of the first leg.

Technically, you can never get 220v all at the same time. Since each 110v leg is alternating current on opposite phases, when one leg is at 110v the other is at 0v. If you held one 110v leg in each hand only one and would be live at a time, TECHNICALLY. 'Course the changeover happens 60 times/second so it's a bit hard to differentiate.

 

[tdkkart]

220 Volt advantage = Lower amps = smaller wire = Cheaper wire

Yes, but you need 3 wires instead of 2, so the price of materials is actually higher..........

 

[Freejack]

The biggest advantage for 220V is on motors for which 110V provides a marginally sized circuit. Someone mentioned earlier table saws, most belt drive "contractor" sized saws have a 1 1/2 hp motor, which at 110V draws around 13 FLA (full load amps), meaning that a standard 15 amp 110V circuit is marginal, especially if the wire covers any distance at all, the motor is going to see a large voltage drop and will run hotter than it should. Given that a vast majority of 220V circuits are sized in the 20 amp range and larger, there will be no problem operating a 1 1/2 hp or smaller motor.

Just to clear up any myths of 220V versus 110V, it will not:

- Double the motors output
- Halve the electricity consumption
- And all others factors being correctly accounted for, it will not allow the motor to last longer, run cooler, or provide more output. If it does then you were operating the motor on a marginal circuit to start with.

Jake

 

[Freejack]

Yes, but you need 3 wires instead of 2, so the price of materials is actually higher..........

Huh?

Jake

 

[Falcon67]

Yes, but you need 3 wires instead of 2, so the price of materials is actually higher..........

Not for a motor circuit - only two wires. My 220V compressor is wired with regular 12-2 w/gnd romex. The white wire gets marked with a color to help ID it as hot and not neutral. A 220V appliance that may have 110V components would require a 3 wire circuit to provide a neutral.

 

[Radar1]

Hey fellas.
I belive that the real reason to use the higher voltage, is because it uses less amperage to do the same work. After all what causes the little wheel to go around and around in the electrical meter. The more amps used, the faster the wheel moves. The less amps used, the slower it goes.

 

[Coach James]

I thought the meter was measuring kW-hrs, which is energy(Joules) consumption. The energy required to operate the motor would be the same regardless of the voltage.

Coach

 

[thirdmouse]

Hey fellas.
I belive that the real reason to use the higher voltage, is because it uses less amperage to do the same work. After all what causes the little wheel to go around and around in the electrical meter. The more amps used, the faster the wheel moves. The less amps used, the slower it goes.

Doesn't read all the posts and confused on the issue besides. This information is wrong and is not even what my original question was about.

 

[Radar1]

Coach,
According to "Wikipedia". A Joule is a unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere is passed through a resistance of 1 ohm for one second.
Therefore I think that the electrical meter on the side of your house is measuring amps. The way the meter reflects the outcome is in watt-hours.

 

[Radar1]

Thirdmouse, I do understand the question. I am trying to say that it would matter in the form of your Electric Bill. It is cheaper to run your equipment at the highest rated votage because it uses less amperage. Now would the average homeowner notice a big difference in there billing, say using a Table Saw at 220 vs 110, probably not real big. But that is one of the reasons that many large companies use 277v lighting.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Radar1, go take a look at your electric bill...you pay for kilowatt-hours, or kwh. Watts = volts x amps. Say the motor draws 2 amps at 120vac, or 1 amp at 240vac; it uses the same amount of watts either way. It won't make any difference if an electric motor is operated on 120vac or 240vac, the cost will be the same.

 

[porschedude996TT]

You will use the same amount of energy from the power company. There may be some difference if the conductors are small. Wired for 240v the current will be lower using the same cord so there could be less voltage drop and the performance may be a little better. I wired my tablesaw from 120v to 240v and I noticed that is spins up faster.

 

[Radar1]

Thanks, I realize that. What I am trying to tell you is that there is a difference between Watts, and Kilo-Watts. A Watt is what is measured in a instance. A Watt-hour is what is measued over a period of time, normally in hours. A 1000 Watt-hours is equal to 1 kilo-watt. The common factor to figure both Watts and Kilo-Watts is the amount of Amperage or Joules used.

 

[Stuart in MN]

There is no difference between watts and kilowatts, other than where the decimal point is located. In both cases it's volts x amps: 10 amps x 120 volts = 1200 watts = 1.2 kilowatts. If you use 1200 watts for one hour, that's equal to 1200 watt-hours, or 1.2 kilowatt-hours. If you use 1200 watts for 2 hours, that's equal to 2400 watt-hours or 2.4 kilowatt-hours.

 

[Radar1]

Taken from Wikipedia.
Types of Electrical meters:
Modern electricity meters operate by continuously measuring the instantaneous voltage (volts) and current (amperes) and finding the product of these to give instantaneous electrical power (watts) which is then integrated against time to give energy used (joules, kilowatt-hours etc).

What Ive been trying to tell you all is that your meter is measuring the amps used to figure the watts. Your meter doesn't measure watts, that is what it computes so the utility company can use as a measure to bill with. Therefore if you can reduce your amperage usage you in theory should also be able to lower your bill.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Radar,

What you are not looking at is the meter will measure 10 amps on each of the 110 legs going into the house for 20 amps total (220 circuit) or 20 amps on one leg (110 circuit). The total power consumed is the same for a 20 amp load.