Our country's voltage setting is 220 V, but I have a bunch of devices that are rated 110V (surplus coffeemakers from Japan to the awesome Philips Hue smart bulbs).
So I was thinking of adding a 110 V source throughout my apartment. Would this be easy? Would it be costly?
I read somewhere that all I had to do to step down "cheaply" is ground one of the 2 LIVE wires, instead of hooking up a massive transformer for the lot.
Is this safe, logical, recommended?
What if I'm on the higher floors, and the building doesn't have "grounds" (our country doesn't use grounding, so 3 prong plugs need to be converted to 2 prong)?
Best Answer
You can't step down 220 volts by using two live wires - that voltage is between phase and neutral and the voltage between phases will be 380 volts, so no cheap 220 volts is there.
Note that besides different voltages there's 50 Hz versus 60 Hz issue - your country likely has 50 Hz mains and if you use an ordinary (not switching power supply) transformer it can't get 60 Hz out. If any of your devices are for 60 Hz the problem gets worse.
You certainly can use the transformer and separate set of wires scenario, but...