Coherent Purelight owners?

[Stoney3K]

Steve-O, before some one jumps you, 3P can go into homes in some parts of Europe, and is common in apartment blocks/allotments in the US with the phases split between apartments/houses.

I have 32A three-phase wired right up to my flat (1 of 3 stories), but only one of the three phases, along with neutral, is wired into the flat itself, together with a 25A glass fuse and RCD, and a few B16 breakers for sub-groups. The other phases are wired into the other stories of the flat.

If I wanted to, I could hack it so there's 32A current running right into my living room, but my utility company wouldn't be very happy about it. It would bypass the electrical meter, for starters.

Continental Europe has mostly single phase per home (3 phase for bigger homes) with star mains running from individual breakers. Most are 6A, 10A or 16A at 230V.

UK and Ireland are wired differently with a single ring main throughout the home, if my memory serves me, 25A breaker for single phase connections, and 13A (or lower) glass fuses or breakers on the device tapping from the ring.

[steve-o]

IM GOING TO HUNT FOR A GENERATOR THIS WEEK. Ill let you know how I get on.

Yes, let us know ! Good Luck!

Steve-o, google "Ring Main" or "Ring Mains", you might just like it, as much as you like to build carbon arc lights. Yes, the sample one you gave me still works.......
Steve

Glad it's still workin' Thought it might be now under a pile of laser-parts, gone and forgotten .. glad it's not. It's a one-of-a-kind ;]

[White-Light]

IM GOING TO HUNT FOR A GENERATOR THIS WEEK. Ill let you know how I get on.

I had a look for you last night.

Cheapest I saw was £7,800.85 including VAT!:

20KVA - http://www.justgenerators.co.uk/pages/product42.htm

This appears suitable as they say 3x 16A @ 230v and 3 phase, but others could advise you better.

Looks like it could be an expensive hobby. Might be cheaper to hire a hall with 3 phase whenever you fancy a play!

[gashead]

Last quote I had was £2.5k to bring three phase into my house, included all the required digging / ground work and moles, and meter.

Only downside was they wanted to switch me to a commercial tariff.

Genset wise, your neighbours will hate you unless you get a silenced one - most are quite loud.. (even the silenced ones)

[steve-o]

I've seen a motor-generator that converted 230V 60Hz to 400 Hz. I wonder if you could hook an electric motor to a brushless 3 phase generator in a similar fashion.

[Stoney3K]

I've seen a motor-generator that converted 230V 60Hz to 400 Hz. I wonder if you could hook an electric motor to a brushless 3 phase generator in a similar fashion.

And how are you going to get 20kVA of motor grunt from that single phase socket in your wall?

20kVA at 230V is about 85-90 amps. Your wires are not gonna like that.

[gashead]

And how are you going to get 20kVA of motor grunt from that single phase socket in your wall?

20kVA at 230V is about 85-90 amps. Your wires are not gonna like that.

You'd need to jack directly into the consumer unit in your house, and probably dedicate yourself a breaker and get some cable to handle the jandle.

For instance in my home, (normal every day house in a small town) I have a 100amp single phase incomer, so in theory I could draw upto 100amps.. just there would be nothing left for any other devices, and I'm not sure if my wife would appreciate me cutting into her sitting on her arse watching "Masterchef" time.

But yeah, taking it from a 13amp socket is gonna warm something, somewhere in the line up..

I love the smell of burning electrics in the morning..

[WookieBoy]

Hey DanielS,

Welcome to PL )

eBay regularly has reasonably priced second hand generators of the size you'd be after, however, depending on where in London you are, you're not going to make yourself popular with your neighbours running one! Even the 'Super Silent' generators we use on events get complaints from neighbours in Gunnersby Park or Victoria Park when we run them (

To be honest, to get a reliable 22-25Kva generator you're looking to spend £2K+ for a good second hand one and maybe two to three times that for a new one... It'd be much cheaper in the long run to pay for three phase installation, not that that'd be cheap either!
If you're just running this at home occasionally, and again depending on where in London you are, I can probably recommend a genny hire company, then you can hire a little genny for weekends you want to run the laser at home, for a few ££ (I think around £60 a week was the last quote I had for a baby generator like this) plus deisel. This might be a better option than shelling out for your own generator (and having to service/maintain it) or installing three phase in your home.

Just a shame the PSU won't run on an inverter... There's always loads of them on FleaBay!

Hope that's helpful...

[steve-o]

Buy a cheap used car (a quiet one) hook up the driveshaft to a 3 phase generator and Voilà! (don't forget the closed-loop 50Hz regulator though, hooked to the ECU or something ) ..