Hi all thanks for the advice in advance. Just a step up autotransformer type question.
I will be receiving a f150 lighting vehicle soon, in australia. Unfortunately the conversion company has not made an effort to replace any of the US on board inverter systems. From my reading there are six nema5-15 120v plugs sharing a total of 2.4kw of combined power at 60hz. There is also 1x nema L14-30 split phase (2 x 120v at 30A) 7.2kw 60hz.
Would the autotransformer be able to get me 3kw 240v 60hz power to an australia 15amp plug via the nema L14-30 if i found a sparky willing to access one of the phases through this plug and utilise appropriate breakers? Can the auto transformer do this? There is no step up example to plain 240ac in the manual that i can see that doesnt involve a multi or quarto.
The NEMA L14-30 provides L1, L2, Neutral, and Ground. There is 240 VAC 60 Hz between L1 and L2, and 120V between L1-N and L2-N.
While the 240V sounds like AUS 230V power, it isn’t. because both of those L1 and L2s are hot relative to neutral and ground.
In AUS power, there is 230V between Line and Neutral.
EDIT: However, I am concerned about the 1.05x voltage increase. If you put in 240V, you will get out 252V, which is awfully high for AUS. So maybe that isn’t such a good idea. Also the 240V input is more than specified in the manual (230V).
If you use the Victron autotransformer instead, it can step up the 120V from the L14-30 (pick a leg) to 240V. You will be limited by the continuous 28A US-neutral limitation of the autotransformer. You don’t need a multi or Quattro. Put L1 and Neutral of the L14-30 into the AT, and get out 240V. However, the voltages are not isolated, and this is probably unsafe. Because if you relabel one of the output lines as AUS Neutral, it will have 120V relative to the frame of the vehicle (assuming Ford bonds the ground and US neutral, I don’t know what they do).
The NEMA 5-15 120V plugs are probably not very useful for you.
Whatever you do, everything will be 60 Hz, so don’t run any motors or compressors that want 50 Hz.
Thank you Rick for your reply. I certainly will have no problem thinking of this thing as boat as it much bigger than one.
So you dont think there is any way to safely take the L1 through the victron AT to get 240V ?
I certainly wont be trying to “combine” the L1 and L2 from the nemaL14-30. I understand you can not get 240v ac single phase from 120v split phase ac.
The nema 5-15s are going to be very useful. I can get 120v AC 60hz chargers for all my work tools, and I can get small step-up converters to 240v AC 60hz. Both my small induction hob and my engel fridge both accept 60hz.
Electrically, going through the AT will certainly work, you will get 240 VAC out from 120V in. For that matter, just using L1 and L2 without the AT will also work electrically. But neither are safe from a grounding perspective. Which is why an isolation transformer is better.
If you can ensure what you plug in does not assume Australian “Neutral” from the AT is grounded, then you won’t have a safety issue, but I don’t know how you could know in advance. Despite this, I’m sure people do this sort of thing and never notice. See if anyone else comments here, it is a common issue.
so wire the transformer the other way around, using 240 input to the output of the transformer, and your appliances to the input side. This gets you a 5% drop, or 228V, much closer to the standard 230V.
