Heater from china - but electricity in europe. Please help

[CasperH]

Hi all

I have a heater from china at 5400 watts - oh boy do I want to hook it up.
For the last year, I have been forced to be on residential electricity - meaning max. 10 AMP at 230 volts.
So slooooow cooking at a 2200 watt heater in the 100-liter boiler. Going crazy!

Anyways, I have now finally moved to a new place where I have those lovely red CEE plugs - meaning 400 volts!

BUT - I just realized, my heater has 3 wires while a European CEE plug have 5.
I do have ( please don't judge me ) a controller box in the middle ( heat on to X temperature, heater off until below set temperature ), but it seems it also only have 3 wires in.

Do anyone have a solution ?

Thinking about a voltage regulator - seen a lot on Alibaba - but I will probably still have the same issue...

[shine_]

Some pictures might help. I'm not an electrician, but I think you need to connect those 3 pins to corresponding 3 - L1 L2 L3. You probably can find a converter somewhere or mcgyver it at your own risk. This might help

[CasperH]

You are right - only have images of inside my controller box.
Hoped anyone had tried this

Will take pictures this weekend

Is there btw any voltage regulators who will work with my 400 volt ?

[Corsaire]

So normally you have a live, a neutral and ground wire.

The 400v has 3 live ones, neutral and ground. A circuit from a single live to neutral gives 230v.

See schematics here.
https://www.zwiebelfam.nl/van-400v-naar-230v-cee/

You can make three separate 230v connections from the 400v one.

You'll still only get 16a per connection.

Look in your fuse box. Do you have a 32a breaker?

[CasperH]

Thanks for the link.

The room I'm in, have the red CEE plugs and it used to be a professional kitchen.
So yes, it should be 32A in the breaker box ( the biggest breaker box i have ever seen )

My estimate is that we are going to be running max 15A - 5600/400=14A.

But the stuff that is baffling for me is that the heater only have 3 wires - should it not have more ? So the big question - how to combine an European CEE with a heater that has fewer wires ?

Could be with a voltage regulator:

CEE -- 5 wires --> voltage reg. -- 3 wires --> heater.

But can't fin any that is rated for 400v - only 220 or 230 v

[RC Al]

Im no electrician, and i really dont understand how it works without a neutral but just using the 3 wires is an option for a "Y" or a "Delta" configuration, please do more homework, maybe talk to an actual electrician?
https://www.electronicsteacher.com/alte ... ations.php

[Corsaire]

I'd say because the heater's probably meant for use on a standard Euro single phase 220-240V.
One hot wire (L), Neutral and ground.
I have 32A single phase (220V) breakers going to the shed. If you have a circuit like that it's good to go.
Any links to the heater to remove all doubt?

[CasperH]

I talked to my neighbor today, who is an electrician.
Also talked to the company who provided me the heater element

It's rated for 380-400 v - and the electrician told me that I could use L1, L2, and neutral to get 400 v with a max of 15A.

So that's perfect! I was lucky to run into him and ask him what he did for a living.

Does anyone know if there is a voltage regulator that can handle 400v and not the usual 220-230v ?

[durty_dunderpants]

sounds like between your sparky friend and the data you got you got this under control. i'd caution anyone in future to not give advice on something like this they admit they don't really know about, as connecting this up wrong - especially whacking them all to hot wires if its designed with a neutral and ground - might not be a great load of fun..

[sw_reijnders]

I talked to my neighbor today, who is an electrician.
Also talked to the company who provided me the heater element

It's rated for 380-400 v - and the electrician told me that I could use L1, L2, and neutral to get 400 v with a max of 15A.

So that's perfect! I was lucky to run into him and ask him what he did for a living.

Does anyone know if there is a voltage regulator that can handle 400v and not the usual 220-230v ?

unfortunately no
the formula P = U x I can be used with a single fase L1 to the neutral.
however 400v is betweet 2 live wires, for example between L1 and L2 and to calculate the amps you have to multiply with √3
And you have the following formula P = U x I x √3 which means 5400/400*1.732 = 23.4A

be carefull with 400v 3-phase power, it's not as easy as it seems

do you have a link to the element you are using?