Electric snow blower uses 240 volts to get the job done | Hacker Day

2021-11-22 12:06:15 By : Ms. Lynn Zhang

In parts of the world where it often snows and homeowners are required to keep sidewalks clear, personal snow blowers seem to be essential equipment. They traditionally use internal combustion engines, but there are also electric models.

[Joel Clemens] As an American, he was not impressed by commercial electric blowers because their 120 V main power supply could not provide the power required for an effective two-stage design. Therefore, he built his own blower using gasoline-powered blowers sold in second-hand goods and 240 V industrial motors.

The blower is an impressive piece of equipment, even if it runs close to his own wire, it does look dangerous. But the video also aroused people's interest because it checked the status of Americans using 240 V sockets. [Joel] prepared a junction box for his electric car and provided him with the American 240 V industrial connector he needed. He pointed out that this situation has become more and more common as the popularity of electric vehicles accelerates.

This seems to be the first electric blower we showed you, but we showed a more traditional remote control machine.

Most electrical codes minimally require a GFI circuit breaker to be used near the plug of the hot tub/swimming pool/sink, and this metal framed widow manufacturer does not seem to have it. There are extension cords with built-in GFI, but for those power levels, GFI circuit breakers are the best choice (the hot tub installation should already be installed). These are too cheap now, there is no reason not to use GFI circuit breakers with weatherproof plug monsters.

Children must stay safe, because line-level errors usually do not give a second chance to learn.

Who said he did not use the GFCI circuit breaker? These charging sockets may even require them.

The settings of my GFCI 30A 240V circuit breaker are basically the same. I care more about my mercury rotary connector than about the ground fault: http://www.evalbum.com/preview.php?vid=5250

Let me tell you it's so worth it!

Good idea-but I never understand why the United States chose 120V.

Or why Japan uses 100V 50 Hz on the east side of the country and 100V 60 Hz on the west side.

Edison wanted to perform simple mathematical operations on his light bulbs, which was the main application at the beginning of electrification. Using the nominal voltage of 100 volts, plus a little extra transmission loss, he can make a 100 watt 100 ohm bulb.

However, almost all residential wiring in the United States is now set to 240 and 120 volts.

You mean that all American households have 240V power supplies, because usually we only have 240V plugs in two places: the washing machine-dryer closet and/or the kitchen stove. All other wires around the house are 120V

You may also have a 240V hot tub or pool pump or electric water heater, but these are hard-wired, not connected via a plug...

240VAC is available in most modern homes, provided by two 180* lines out of phase. The third wire into the home is the neutral wire, which is grounded to a potential of 0V. Any "hot" wire to the neutral wire will give you 120V. In the circuit breaker box, 2 hot wires are alternately connected to the circuit breaker. Circuit breaker slot 1 (and other odd-numbered slots) will be connected to the first line, and slot 2 (and other even-numbered slots) will be connected to line #2, slot

120V circuit breakers are connected to odd-numbered or even-numbered slots. The circuit connected to the lamp or anything else consists of a power cord and a neutral wire. The 240V circuit breaker is actually two independent 120V circuit breakers connected to the even numbered slots and the odd numbered slots. The circuit leading to the main electrical appliances has 2 power lines and neutral wires that are 180* out of phase. Having a neutral wire allows 120V projects to be incorporated into the equipment-usually any lighting or control circuit.

So at home, this must mean that two given 120V sockets may be 180 degrees out of phase? Is there a standard to prevent this from happening in the same room? Or do you have one stage upstairs and another stage downstairs? Does the out-of-phase cable have to be laid on separate dry walls?

Suppose the goal is to spread the 120V load across two phases?

Generally speaking, all outlets in a room are on the same circuit and powered by a circuit breaker.

In 99.99% of American households (and possibly 95% of Canadian households), 120V sockets are located on shunt circuits that exceed 240V power. Therefore, everyone can use 240V effectively. However, each 240V circuit in the circuit breaker box requires money to be wired and brings you closer to the limit of service amperage. You can upgrade, but it costs money. You can replace one 30A 240V circuit with four 15A 120V circuits. Four circuits will run many lights and sockets in a small house. My box has 240V for dryer, spa, air conditioner and oven. (But I did not use the oven, my new oven is all gas).

Your math is very vague. You can replace one 240V circuit with two 120V circuits, because the 240V circuit requires two breaker slots. The current rating of each circuit breaker does not matter. The size of each circuit breaker is to protect the downstream wiring, not the circuit breaker box itself. There will be a main circuit breaker in the main panel to do this-or in the case of a sub-panel, a circuit breaker in the main panel can protect the sub-panel and its feeders. The size of each panel needs to be adjusted appropriately according to its expected load, but the calculation is not simply adding the circuit breaker ratings, but taking into account the type of load and the intended use. Reactive loads (such as motors) have a large inrush current when starting, and the size and protection of the circuit take this current into account. The typical free-running current is usually much lower. If the motor only runs for a few hours a week to spin laundry, its influence in the load calculation may be much less than what its circuit breaker rating implies.

In these two slot spaces, you can also have two 120V circuits and one 240V circuit, or four 120V circuits, or even two 240V circuits. You can get a series circuit breaker, effectively doubling the slot capacity. You need the bus capacity for grounding and any 120V neutral point (putting two wires into a hole on the bus is against regulations), and you still have to comply with NEC’s requirements for total packing capacity and load capacity, But it can be done. Of course, native code allows-you now like some weird juju, not all inspectors like to see this. One or two of a complete panel will usually fly, but other than that, they prefer to see a sub-panel.

tldr; NEC is a strange beast, the panel capacity is not just the sum of the circuit breaker capacity.

If you have a 240V socket, you have 240V in your home.

Neither do I. I am surprised that they can use 120V to cook a kettle. Please note that this does explain why they can't make tea.

My electric kettle works well, only 120V. Of course I cannot make toast or microwave at the same time, because the kitchen is a loop. But the tea must be steep, so I serialized my task of making tea. (My family moved to the United States from Scotland and England about 100 years ago, and they are still habitual tea drinkers)

I heard that the 240v electric kettle is much faster than our American electric kettle.

This is probably true. Using wires of the same specification, it can draw the same current through its wires, but its power (heat) output will increase twice.

The fastest thing for my kettle is to just fill in enough water to make the amount of tea I want. I filled the teapot and poured it into the kettle. I may have to boil 2.5 cups of water at a time. If I fill up the kettle with up to 6 glasses of water, it will take a long time to boil. At that time I might as well use my gas stove to boil water, except that gas is much cheaper for me, it takes the same amount of time.

jonmayo: Of course, I only add water to the kettle as needed. It has 2kW and is less than 10A at 230V. So this is pretty fast. But sometimes you can also buy a 3,3kW kettle here.

I am envious of British teapots. I briefly thought about installing a 240 volt socket in my kitchen so that I can import British kitchen appliances :-)

If I were a tea drinker and there was only low voltage in the kitchen, I would do this, but here we have 230V regular voltage, if you have an electric stove, you usually have 400V 3-phase power in the kitchen. If needed, it can be up to 11kW. :-)

Is there a safe way to connect Amazon UM's UK outlet to a US 240V main power supply with appropriately sized circuit breakers?

Security...mainly. Approved by the building code, it may not be.

You can install a 240V socket like a typical stove or dryer socket. You can get its British socket. It may also be necessary to import the electrical box to ensure that it is installed correctly.

The problem you will encounter is the 50/60Hz difference. Some devices will not care. An ordinary kettle with just a resistance wire can work normally. However, if the design of the motor does not accept 60Hz, anything with a motor will have problems, which may cause overheating and damage.

So you have to use an adapter-of course it is safer :-)

If you install it only for additional power, that means you need a 3KW inverter, not a cheap or ultra-compact device.

Why? That is totally unnecessary.

European equipment is designed to have any wire ground potential from 220V to 240V. British plugs are polarized, but not all European plugs are polarized. So no one knows which wire is hot and which is neutral. Therefore, there is no problem with 120V grounding on each side. In fact, the pressure on the isolation is less than its intended use in Europy. The only problem may be the frequency of electric equipment. The 60Hz transformer is no problem. On the contrary, the 50Hz 60Hz transformer may be overloaded.

Cut off the British plug of the power cord and insert the 240V American style plug?

Things can go wrong because the 240V sockets in the US are two-phase, while the British sockets are single-phase... British sockets will see 240V to ground and/or neutral, but American sockets will never see 240V to ground (120V in 2 phase, 180° offset) and it has no neutral lead. Resistive loads with switches or mechanical relays will not be excited about this, but I will be very careful with any electronic products.

But theoretically, grounding should not be used as part of electronic equipment, so lower than expected peak voltage should not have any effect.

No two-phase beast. Residential American wiring is single-phase 220v. The center-tapped transformer effectively divides the phase into two half-phases 180 degrees apart, but it is still considered a single phase.

What is even more strange is why they basically chose the worst electrical plug design imaginable. Then standardize.

Yes, even if the exposed metal parts are right next to the operator, let's make the plug still hot as soon as the plug is inserted. No, we don't need any fuses at all! Of course, its production cost is slightly cheaper, but this is just a bad design.

Poor design and low production costs, but surprisingly expensive for consumers (at least in Canada). A standard NEMA 5-15P plug may cost 9 dollars or more, while a plug like NEMA 6-15P (250V, 15A) may cost about 15 dollars. In contrast, a well-designed 13A fused British plug may be GBP1.50.

In Canada, the price of a single 6-15P is about 8 Canadian dollars. So about 3 times the GBP1.50 you mentioned. If you buy in bulk, the price will be cheaper.

But yes, the British plug design is far superior to our North American design, with one small exception: at least if we leave the plug on the floor, we are unlikely to pierce ourselves.

Where are you shopping? I find things like Home Depot and Rona (at least in Alberta) are very expensive for these things. I found a bunch of reasonably priced 5-15Ps in Princess Auto not long ago, so I stocked up these.

Shaking your finger briefly with 120VAC is usually no big deal. And American plugs are cheaper to manufacture and not as bulky as British plugs. I don’t like that American sockets are too attractive for children to insert forks and butter knives in.

The British are so strangely paranoid about electricity that there is no suitable light switch in the old bathroom. Maybe 240V is more serious for them. Most American appliances require a fuse, but it is usually not built into the plug. Probably because the wires are usually detachable.

I think we should internationally standardize DC sockets for most household items (not USB, which is redesigned every 5-8 years). Low-voltage direct current for lamps (now mainly based on low power LEDs), shavers, etc. Using 24V DC in the bathtub of the shaver is much safer than 240V or even 120V (aka 115V). It is cordless and safer, with a DC-powered charging station when not in use. It would be great to eliminate ugly wall transformers or at least move these transformers as part of every wall socket.

I'm considering a standard up to 24VDC @ 45A (1kW), even for a device that is actually pulling a full load, this means 8 awg wires. A compact switching power supply that can provide full current will be expensive, but my homeowner can choose a power supply that is more like 6A, and the cost is significantly reduced, which is still sufficient for many purposes (and can be used for your laptop Computer charging) .)

Yes... https://xkcd.com/927/

There are many standardized DC connectors available at any time... USB 2.0 has been proven to be sufficient to charge small portable electronic devices, USB-C provides enough juice and voltage options to actually power and charge normal-sized laptops , Go further.

For your envisioned 24V/1kW, the Anderson power pole (high ampere version) will be suitable... common in Anderson in forklifts, etc., where the battery pack needs to be removed by the operator.

However, if the home is to obtain low voltage and high current as standard availability, it will most likely have to adopt some form of smart socket, which requires active negotiation before sending any large amounts of power.

No, 230V is really good for home wiring. An additional 24V network is possible, but not suitable for 1kW. Of course, your 24V 45A grid has a good advantage: you do not need additional arc welding equipment. Simply plug the cable into the wall socket.

It doesn't matter, we have posted safety warnings on everything. :)

You don't need security warnings. Here, we call 120V "Mild Wake"

@Internet: Are you talking about British plugs? They are really safe.

I dare you to find another standard plug, when it stays on the ground, it will naturally "fix": P

Strangely, I recently wandered the Internet on this topic. From memory before World War II, the main electrical outlets in the UK were light sockets and some round 3-pin plugs for major consumers. Multiple lamp socket adapters are very common.

A committee was formed after World War II to design our current plugs, child protection devices, blinds on power pins, fuses, and all these good things. The reason why we have such a mature electrical system is World War II. About 10 years later, partially insulated connectors appeared.

The reason why the United States has its systems, IMHO, they have not been destroyed and rebuilt in a large-scale war.

> Yes, even if the exposed metal parts are right next to the operator, let us make the plug still hot as soon as the plug is inserted

Except for your incoherent speech: I am forty years old and have not been electrocuted. grow up.

Most *South* Americas wisely choose 220V-guess you are talking about *North* America?

And Thailand has 220V but this small American plug. :-)

"Suicide shower" does not work well under 120V voltage: D

But, but, what about that deafening roar?

I am very happy that he can maintain the reverse function. Maybe add an ampere/watt meter on the dashboard. I suspect that the headlights installed on the shovel will be damaged in deep snowdrifts and may be installed further back. Oh yes, add a small air compressor, one of my tires is always flat when it needs to be used. B^)

I would consider building some kind of inverter and putting a pile of fat on it, which will not only make it heavier, but you will also get better grip in the snow. This seems too light to pass through a few inches of snow effectively without slipping.

For his specific motor, you may need a continuous inverter of about 3kW...maybe more. A complete speculation on the sidelines makes the cost of the inverter more than $500. I'm not sure what type of lipo bag you are thinking about (3S, 4S, 5S, 6S, etc.), but a bag with sufficient capacity and current output can be very expensive. An inverter that provides such high power draws a lot of current from the battery, even for a 6S battery pack.

Tire chains may be a reasonable way to gain more traction in this application.

Why are you going through these difficulties? If you want to use a DC power supply, why not install a DC motor?

If I want to convert it to battery power, I will not use an induction motor with an inverter. They have a huge starting current. I will use a suitable brushless (aka synchronous) motor and the "inverter" will be called a BLDC controller. In battery-powered designs, efficiency is the number one priority.

Good job, but IMO is too much for this task. I grew up in the countryside with a 12-horsepower Gravely tractor/snowblower, but now in the suburbs, my "bad 120 V single-stage" Toro 1800 SnowCurve has cleared a 20-foot x 80-foot driveway for 20 years (Rochester , New York 84 inches) it snows every year). It may take longer, but weighs only 26 pounds and can be stored overhead in the garage in summer. FWIW

I think the bad reputation of electric snow blowers comes from people buying poorly designed "discounted" versions from large stores and then using small extension cords to power them (the voltage drops, anyone?). This does not understand that any snow blower has an upper capacity limit, you must slow down in the deep part (for example, use 1/2 or 1/3 of the width of the channel). Nevertheless, they are still very light (a 15 amp circuit limits you to about 1600 watts or about 2 horsepower)-Amazon's review of good electricity is very enlightening: http://amzn.to/2nUWF7s

"And you have to slow down in the deep part (e.g. use 1/2 or 1/3 wide channels)."

I have to use my 4HP gasoline (gasoline-Jenny) John Deere 522 to do this.

Wait a minute...HP is like...horse...power?

The benefit of this project is that it can be taken out within ten years to tell our grandchildren, "This is a snow blower. It is used on white objects falling from the sky. No, it is not pollution, it is frozen water. Yes, It was cold enough to freeze. They were doing well then."

Yes, they do have horses in the UK, right? However, I was mistaken. The model number "522" means it has a 5 horsepower engine and a 22 inch (about 55 cm-Jenny) strip.

There is also [ostrich Cass], this snow blower is already 40 years old, maybe even 40 years old! B^)

Probably, unless Harry Potter suddenly becomes a power unit...

If you already have a 240 volt power supply in your garage, why do you experience the hassle and expense of building such an unreliable adapter? Simply pull out 240 volts from the panel. In addition, what are the benefits of not using waterproof connectors?

Everything is fun and gameplay until you finally get electrocuted in the driveway.

The electric car charger is directly connected to the panel box, and there is no socket in the middle. It is safer to hit the standard welder socket or L6-30 twist lock through the GFCI circuit breaker first. Then he can plug in whatever he wants without a clumsy self-made adapter.

If you are concerned, a chain link fence or some vertical steel grille welded to the front of the blower will help prevent it from eating the power cord.

This guy is a real hacker. He can afford a Tesla, but he can still crack the garbage together to make something useful!

No real hacker would avoid using battery sleds in cars to power electric snow blowers.

Well, it is impossible to ground 240v, because each leg is 120v at 180 degrees phase, so it will only be a 120v electric shock unless you somehow manage to touch the two hot spots.

There is no snow where I live, but you have to mow the lawn all year round, my grandmother’s lawn for many years. Switching to an electric car is great, with lighter weight, less noise, and no need to continue processing gasoline. Rope management is no problem, only one mode is required. I will never go back (but she has a gardener now anyway).

I used to mow the lawn for two sets of grandparents. I was happier when they had an electric lawn mower. The gasoline lawn mower once made me a little scared.

Why should you make yourself afraid of such things? I think if you grabbed the muffler, why would you get burned? In addition, what are the unique dangers of gasoline engines compared to electric engines?

Once you release the switch, most electric lawn mowers automatically stop the blade with the actual brake in less than 2 seconds-this does not happen in ICE... and all the fun of dealing with petrol and basic ICE maintenance, many of them The owner obviously found it too complicated for some reason.

The electric lawn mower is as simple as that, plug in the power and mow the lawn...

Some (most? All?) new ICE lawn mowers have a deadlock on the handle, and once you release it, it kills the ignition and brakes the blade. I don't know how fast they stop, but I guess my Honda lawn mower stopped for nearly 2 seconds.

I agree that electric lawn mowers are much simpler in principle, but it doesn't make sense for me to wrap extension cords around all the trees to reach the entire yard. When the battery improves a little, maybe then. My rechargeable trimmer is great...I haven't activated my gas trimmer in a few years.

Gasoline exploded. I don't see this happening with electric lawn mowers. You also cannot run over non-existent power cords with a gasoline lawn mower, so choose your death wisely.

Samsung is involved in the electric lawn mower business.

As [AKA A] said, I’m very happy to cut off almost immediately. Both gasoline lawn mowers don’t have any automatic cut-off function, and the gasoline engines are heavy and there are slopes in the garden. They can run away if I lose control. Still running (this has never happened, but this is not the essence of worry). Also: I was still a kid, so I flinched!

Hmm... I want to know how many dog ​​owners are willing to drag an extension cord on their lawn. not me!

I have raised 2 dogs for many years, but none of them have bitten the cables or even tried...because I made it clear to them that if they do, they won’t be very good in the end: P teaches neither of them so hard Just stay away from the lawn mower, probably because of the sound it makes.

You are the owner, not the dog. If you are the one who feeds it, then it’s best to obey...I really don’t like people who don’t have the ability to train their dogs properly. Anything over 20 kg/~44 lbs, they may be harmful to people, especially children. Constitute a real danger.

Sounds like another HaD project.

Introducing Poomba, an autonomous dog feces collection robot.

I disagree with the idea of ​​keeping a dog. Cats are usually too afraid of the noise of lawn mowers and they stay awake.

The focus is not on electrification at all. The point is that when your neighbor asks you to make their driveway, you say "I'm sorry, my 240V power cord is not long enough..." Then you whisper to yourself... "Yes, yes, my friend , Ask someone else."

What surprises me is how many hackers are terrible with small engines. Small engines are cool and have made great progress in the past few decades.

They usually fail when you need them most. Carburetor, spark plug, oil change. On small generators, somehow the choke does not provide a rich enough mixture, you have to almost close the air intake with your fingers or use ether spray.

seriously. At the end of the season, change the oil and drain the tank, then run it until the fuel system dries, and it won’t even run with the choke open. Add fuel stabilizer to your tank. Do not store small engines unprotected outdoors. If there is no gas in it, there is nothing to smell, and there is nothing to glue the carburetor.

They are not that complicated, especially the old 3.5HP Briggs and Stratton engines that you have seen on lawn mowers for decades. The only broken part (which will not wear out the items you change frequently in any way) is the rubber gasket/diaphragm between the plastic carbohydrate and the steel fuel tank. Once those were dry, they stopped pumping air from the fuel tank.

I want to know what are the service factors of this pump motor? It may not tolerate a lot of grinding on ice cubes or anything that makes it run within the expected speed range. Enough repetitive stalls may cook it. ----- About gasoline-powered equipment https://www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp Look around for non-ethanol mixed fuels, you will be satisfied with all outdoor power equipment. Electronic gas will only corrode everything it touches and harden any "rubber" parts of the fuel system. If you want to get a headache from reading all the details, check out several forums to learn about people who use gasoline-fueled equipment (lawn mowers, saws, trimmers, etc.). I did a round trip (to a neighboring county) for about an hour to buy non-ethanol fuel. A few years ago, I calculated the cost of the parts (I repaired it myself) and the trip using non-E-gas was much cheaper than the maintenance cost using ethanol fuel.

Oh, you most likely need to repair or replace equipment components that use ethanol blends to see improvements. Pure gas cannot heal alcohol damage. You have to start with something intact, otherwise the new fuel will not make any difference. I realize this sounds a bit far-fetched and has to do with money. But you will wonder why you still touch the ethanol trash after finishing your things! :^D

I have been using E10 gasoline in my lawn tractors and snow blowers for many years without any problems with the engine.

Have to admit. To be honest, I envy those of you who don't have E-gas problems. About one summer, it will expand the needle seat of a "modern" B&S push lawn mower engine. When the needle seat expands, it will lower the float level, and eventually a thin fire will occur. Well, would anyone who never replace the air filter object? A true B&S fuel cut will rupture and leak in two seasons. Even new, EPA, steam rated fuel lines will harden. Hand-held devices are a nightmare, the hardened fuel lines will not move in the fuel tank and the fuel will run out of the engine. Or they rupture and draw air into the pipeline. The carburetor diaphragms are so stiff and wrinkled that they cannot move properly, and the wrinkled flaps cannot seal the pump section. You should see some off-white crusts in the fine-tuned carbohydrates. (I sometimes prefer a few neighbors’ equipment) I often wonder if there are some extra annoying additives in the fuel in the city where I live? ? ? ? Before putting the equipment away, I used the shut-off device and dried the carbohydrates/pipes. Some better results were obtained, but it was still troublesome. Find the non-E-gas location, then rebuild or replace things again... Since then, there will be no trouble. Sometimes it is exacerbated by fuel travel, but when the other way does not cut it off, you will do so. Like I said, to be honest, I envy you people who get along with ethanol!

Thanks for your idea...I rebuilt a snow blower last week, wow! It works great and it is quiet. I don’t like having a lot of gas-powered equipment around, there are always problems. I hope someone will start buying these products. With the popularity of electric cars, 240v plugs are everywhere in garages. I am an electrician, and now about 1/5 of the houses are my clients. Thanks again to the boss. If you want to know anything about what I have done, please feel free to contact me.

As weak as he said. Need a 9hp motor

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