I want to put a commercial deck oven (with steam) in my garage. I looked into converting my garage single-phase power to 3-phase. Apparently it requires plugging in a single-phase generator, and the generator motor generates 3-phase power for the oven. This is far more complicated than I originally understood, where I thought I could buy a rather simple solid-state thing to convert the power. Not so my electrician tells me.
Okay, so what about going the other direction. Can I (or someone that knows what they are doing) "re-wire" the oven (relatively easily) to make it a single-phase? My electrician tells me that it should be a relatively simple matter.
Does anyone out there have some experience and/or information on this?
Thanks in advance
Brian
I have no personal experience. I thought a VFD would work, but it turns out they wouldn't, but here is a page https://www.quora.com/How-can-you-convert-a-three-phase-oven-to-single-phase
also check out http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/transformers-phase-converters-and-vfd/3-phase-heat-treat-oven-262257/ not much info, but looks like you need to find an electrician that is familiar with it.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I'm checking with oven manuf. to determine if they have done this or know anyone who has. I understand the re-wiring should be straightforward, but may be not easy.
You can't really tell how easy it would be to convert the oven itself to single phase without looking at all the power-consuming components inside it... that could include heating elements, a fan, temperature regulation circuits and possibly other stuff. Then you would have to assess each component to see how to convert it. The heating elements would be the simplest, but there are ramifications related to the current consumption... you'd need to investigate how much current they'd draw from single phase and whether your breaker could handle it.
I wouldn't attempt to convert the oven unless the manufacturer specifically shows how to do it in the installation manual (or contact the manufacturer and ask).
I think your original concept of a solid-state convertor is the most likely to succeed. An example would be this device (for workshop power equipment) http://www.grizzly.com/products/Static-Phase-Converter-3-to-7-HP/G5843.
You need to select the converter rated for the power consumption of the oven at continuous duty (workshop power converters are often run for short periods, so they can't handle as much load when they're operated full-time).
So the key question is: what's the power consumption of the oven? Then contact the manufacturer of the converter and explain that you need to supply continuous-duty power of x kW, and ask them which of their devices will work. Then determine if your breaker panel can handle the load.
I contacted the people you linked. They confirmed what I had learned that a 1-ph. motor will be needed to generate 3 phase power. They also confirmed that three-phase for an oven is not at all needed, and it should be a straightforward, but not necessarily easy re-wiring. I'm writing the manufacturer to determine what input they can provide.
was just wondering how you got on with the conversion as im in a similar position with a salva kwik-co bake off unit i read the links barryva posted but have no idea about star and delta wiring
so question is did you get an electro mechanical equipment engineer to rewire or just a normal electrician ?