120v to 240 volt transformer

[JoeAceJR]

I'm in North America, our outlets can provide around 1800 watts. If I have a 2500 watt device (I would buy the 5,000 watt version), and plug it into a 5,000 watt 120 to 240 watt transformer on Amazon, won't that constantly trip the home breaker or cause a fire?

 

[WhitetailAni]

Changing the voltage will not increase the current capacity.

The electricity still has to flow through the wires in the wall, which are not designed for 5000W, only 1800W (for a 15 amp circuit) or 2400W (for a 20 amp circuit).

Know that the US electrical system is 240V - we just do it in a weird way.

Explanation:

 

[Moonzy]

if your load is higher than 1800W, then yes it'll trip

 

a transformer changes the voltage, but doesn't change the power output (reduce it a lil due to efficiency but yea)

[Arrogath]

What you need is to rewire an outlet for 240 volt, which will probably require a new home run of 3 conductor 14 and you’ll need a 240volt breaker for your panel, which is basically just 2 regular breakers side by side tied together so they both trip at the same time

[CommanderAlex]

4 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

What you need is to rewire an outlet for 240 volt, which will probably require a new home run of 3 conductor 14 and you’ll need a 240volt breaker for your panel, which is basically just 2 regular breakers side by side tied together so they both trip at the same time

I believe they call it a double pole circuit breaker to provide the 240 Volts AC. OP is just changing the voltage output, still will pull the same amperage. 

 

If you need more info on how the US 120/240V North American breaker works, here's a informative video. 

 

 

[Arrogath]

6 hours ago, SpiderMan said:

I believe they call it a double pole circuit breaker to provide the 240 Volts AC. OP is just changing the voltage output, still will pull the same amperage. 

Was trying to keep it simple and free terminology for the op, but yes that would be a 2 pole breaker, 1 for each “phase”... since 120/240 is actually just one 240v phase split in half phase isn’t really the right word, but it gets the point across.

 

And to your point yes, the amount of wattage a given circuit can provide is finite, doesn’t matter what you transform the voltage to you still have the same power available after that point less the losses of the transformer.

 

Power= Voltage x Current

Voltage= Current x Resistance

edit: Also, a single 120v 15amp circuit breakers and other equipment is only rated for 80% continuous load typically, so your circuit is only rated for 1440 watts just a friendly FYI