Hi People,
I'm an Aussie going to Korea to live for a year or two. I'm bringing some appliances with me. The Australian rating is 240V/ 50 Hz. Korea is 220V/ 60 Hz. Will I need a transformer? I read somewhere that transformers for home use are generally only step-up/ down x2. Can anyone give me a heads-up?
Cheers,
Anon
"Anon Email"
** To hard for you to say what kind ??** Maybe, in some cases.
But not in most.
..... Phil
I would expect that most appliances designed for the Australian market would be designed to also work with the EU standard of 230V +/-10% (207-253V), and should work fine at 220V.
50Hz vs 60Hz may be more of an issue, and isn't so easily solved. Items which simply convert the mains to DC won't care, but those which use the mains as a clock source (e.g. mains-powered alarm clocks) will run fast, and AC motors may run fast (and draw more power) or not work.You can convert 60Hz to 50Hz with a VFD or an online UPS, but this may cost as much as the appliance you want to power.
Many devices are designed to support multiple markets with only minimal changes (e.g. I've seen mains alarm clocks with a 50/60Hz jumper), so it's sometimes feasible to modify the device for a different mains frequency.
Thanks for your help, guys.
Cheers.
220 and 240V devices will *normally* work fine on each other's voltage.
Don't take anything that's reliant on mains frequency though. What did you have in mind ?
Graham
Most likely you won't have any issues.
P.S. I thought they used 50Hz in Aussie land?
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