Page 1 of Change of electrical current

I will be moving to dubai in the next year, i own a lot of electrical equipment which i wish to take with me as when i bought it, it was expensive but has lost a lot of its value.

The problem is the two countries run on different voltage supplies the UK runs at 240v AC at 50Hz whereas Dubai runs at 220v AC at 50Hz is it possible to use the UK goods at the lower voltage or does it need a transformer or some kind of step up device

Cheers

Don`t think it`ll hurt it - my Sony amp is rated between 220 and 240 volts, and has worked in France (where 220v is norm) as well as the UK.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 28th May 2003, 12:20

You should have no problem at all,

If you check the input voltage on the back or base of your items it is usualy listed as 220-240v or even just 220v. You even find here our supply is usually around the 230v mark and can drop as low as 200v or as high as 260v.

One thing to watch out for is make sure the sockets are earthed, my perants moved to Cairo a few years ago and nothing out there is earthed.

Not a problem for most electrical items but things like computer equipment, washing machine/dishwasher & microwave need a good earth as they return excess power up the earth pin, a surge protection feature in computers but a safety feature in the w/m and d/w.

It doesn`t mean everything is going to blow up as soon as you plug it in just that you will get buzzed by them if you touch a bare metal part and have bare feet as they will earth themselves through you. Feels like pins and needles. Can also be dangerous should anything develope a fault.

One tip is take a couple of 4, 6 or 8 way extension leads pref the surge protected type (quite reasonable in argos) as power can go on and off a lot. That way you only need to buy a local type plug for the extension and just plug all of you equipment in to the extension leads, saves having to change loads of plugs. Also helps as the folks found that in thier apartment there was only 1 or 2 sockets in each room.

I got around the eathing problem at my perants by running a length of cable from each item, taking out a screw and scratching away some paint to make sure of a good connection, then put screw back in with the wire wrapped around it, then running the cable to the nearest gas or water pipe and wrapping the other end around that using an earthing clamp.

Good luck in Dubai, what are you going there for anyway, asume it is work and not pleasure?

Good luck,

Ger.

I am probably wrong but I think the only things that may experience problems would be VCR`s, alarm clocks, microwaves or anything that uses any electrical/ digital timing mechanism.
JMHO
Choagy :-)

i would think most things would be ok @ the moment more or less everyone is getting about 230v ac anyway the tolerance on products is pretty good they reckon within 10 years we in the u.k will be getting batween 210-220v anyway they only thing voltage drop might be iffy with is things with ac motors in em like washmac tdryers etc a lot of electronic gear is ok as the transformers have a good tolerance