Can 50Hz be run at 60Hz? 1

[bubbawells]

I have shipped a 10KW Generator to Africa from the US and am trying to figure for sure if I can run my 50Hz devices at the 60Hz that the generator is rated for. If I recall one of my EE classes correctly running 50Hz devices at 60Hz will shorten the life of your device where as running 60Hz devices at 50Hz will actually lengthen the life of your device....Can anyone please help to shed some light on this before I totally destroy my equipment?
P.S. the equipment that I will be running on this is just general household items from Refrigerator to Hair dryer.

 

[cuky2000]

SUGGESTION: Consider use the search features available in this forum. You will be impressed of the amount of good info that you could find.

Here is some sample. thread237-31684 thread238-38672 thread237-43167

Good luck

 

[GreyGoose]

To make a long story short, impedance is inversely proportional to frequency. So, as your line frequency increases, the impedance the circuit decreases. Basically what this means is that, if you have equipment designed for 50 hz applications & you run 60 hz power through it, the impedance of the circuit is reduced, thereby causing increased current flow in the circuit for a given voltage. The equipment will run hotter, causing the insulation to break down faster (over time) resulting in failures (shortened equipment life). The reverse is true when you run 60 hz equipment at 50 hz line frequency. As far as a quantitative answer goes, you can look in any good AC power textbook, pull the appropriate equations and do the math to get an idea of how this principle works.

Hope that helped...

 

[gigahertz]

Why not just run the generator at 50 HZ (slower speed)?

 

[electricpete]

running the generator at slow speed may also require reducing voltage proportionaly to avoid overexciting the core.

The answer to the original question also depends on the type of device. Cuky's first link addresses motors (I didn't read the other links). Greygoose' comments I would say apply to coils and transformers (such as in the front end of power supplies) and these act differently than motors. Capacitors may be overloaded by increasing the frequency.

 

[wvbht]

The inductive reactance of a coil is direclty proportional to the frequency. XL=2 pi f L. It would seem to me that the current drawn by a 50 Hz motor, operating at the same voltage, would draw less current on 60 Hz.
Of course, the speed of the motor would be off and the horsepower output of the motor would be less. Transformers would also have voltage changes, the voltage being higher because of the increase in frequency.
Any electric clocks or mechanical timers would also be affected.