I have a chandelier made for the USA market and runs on 110-120 volts. What modifications do I need to make it work in India which has 220-240 volts? Will it need to be rewired?
Electrical – How to convert a 120V chandelier to 240V
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There are a few things that would make me nervous about doing this:
For a given wattage, bulbs rated for 110 V will draw over twice as much current as those rated for 240 V. For example, 60 W @ 240 V is 250 mA; 60 W @ 110 V is 550 mA. Are the supply wires going to be able to carry enough current for as many bulbs and at the wattage you want? The extra live wire is probably to allow independent control of parts of the chandelier from two light switches, so the limiting factor will be the neutral.
In any light fixture that you could buy in the US or Canada, any exposed metal parts that could be energized in a fault would be grounded. Your photos don't show a ground lead -- is there one, and is it hooked up correctly?
My advice would be to talk to an antique dealer that specializes in lighting. I imagine that there's a market for importing and/or updating fixtures to current standards, and they would probably be able to put you in touch with someone who could do any work that's required.
Installation should be easy once it's ready. US wiring has color coded wires for live and neutral; if Canada is the same, you'd probably need to tag the neutral wire to indicate that it is neutral.
It's referring to the electrical service supplying the house. Most homes in the US are supplied by a single phase service, which is often described as a 120/240 Volt system. If your house is supplied by a three phase system, it could be a 120/208 Volt system.
In both these cases you'll be able to install the equipment you have.
NEMA 14 devices are four wire grounding devices. Which means they'll require two ungrounded "hot" conductors (X,Y), one grounded "neutral" conductor (W), and one grounding conductor (G). When installed on a single phase 120/240 volt circuit, NEMA 14 devices can supply 120 and/or 240 volt loads. A NEMA 14-30 device is designed to supply 30 ampere equipment.
The circuit will require a 30 ampere double pole breaker, and four at least 10 AWG copper conductors. You'll connect one ungrounded "hot" conductor to each of the X and Y terminals. The grounded "neutral" conductor goes to the W terminal. And the grounding conductor connects to the G terminal.
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Best Answer
The wire is usually rated for 600V; check that first if it is and you can find lamps that fit the sockets at 220-240V with the same wattage or less than the maximum wattage. If lamps that fit at the correct wattage are available you could connect the black wire center pin on the fixture to your hot and the white wire to the neutral conductor or shell and last if a metal fixture connect the ground from the fixture to the service ground and it should work. There are sockets to switch from U.S. base to European bases so that bulbs from overseas can fit.