Trying to fix the janky electric configuration on my setup

[Automobili3XF]

I'm pretty ignorant about electrics, so i would like to ask for help in this issue that i'm having.

Here's the deal, the electrical part of my setup has always been a mess, all i have to power the entire setup is two 220v/60hz wall outlets (i need at least 8) and i have to get the most out of them.

Currently i have two voltage regulators (is it? we call them "power stabilizers"), one is 1000va and the other is 300va and they transform the raw 220v/60hz signal into 110v/60hz, which is required by most of my gear, but i was warned more than once that these are dangerous devices and that i should be using something else to power my setup. Add the fact that these add a lot of hiss to my audio equipment, even when properly grounded (which the outlets are).

This combined 1300va is not enough to power everything at the same time, so i would like to step it up a bit, while keeping the ability to feed a stable 110v/60hz to my setup.

I searched around and came up with a pretty simple setup, which in my own ignorance, should work perfectly for what i'm trying to achieve, a server power bar connected to bigger step down transformer, and the models that i found were those:

Power bar: http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-779022447-regua-de-tomadas-8-saidas-com-disjuntor-p-racks-de-servidor-_JM

Transformer: http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-802079901-auto-transformador-fiolux-3000va-2170w-110-220-220-110-_JM

 

What i'll have connected to those is:

1x computer (max. voltage rated at 350w), 1x Denon AVR-1602 (which i'm going to upgrade to something much more power hungry, like a Cambridge CXA80), 1x PS3 SS, 1x 16 port gigabit switch, 1x Ubiquiti POE, 1x LED TV, 1x SACD player and 1x 10 port USB Hub.

 

Like i said in the header of this post, i have not idea if any of this is correct and if it isn't, please advise me. 

I think that's all, thanks since!

 

[pictured is my current dangerous power setup]

 

[dany_boy]

Why do you need 110V? And I can assure you that "power stabilizers" do not lower the voltage from 220 to 110, if anything they get it from 240-220 to 220 and/or remove spikes.

[Automobili3XF]

2 hours ago, dany_boy said:

Why do you need 110V? And I can assure you that "power stabilizers" do not lower the voltage from 220 to 110, if anything they get it from 240-220 to 220 and/or remove spikes.

I mentioned that on the post "[...]and they transform the raw 220v/60hz signal into 110v/60hz, which is required by most of my gear[...]".

I have a few, older audio devices that were design for the US, that means they only run in 110v/60hz, if i put 220v/60hz on those, they will just blow up.

 

About the "stabilizers", i have no idea regarding the naming of those outside my country, i'm fact i haven't seen any outside Brazil and Argentina.

Their input is 220v/60hz or 110/60hz and they will always output 110/60hz with an integrated circuit breaker that gets activated in the event of main current overload, that's all i know.

[dany_boy]

Well then what you need is not a "power stabilizer" or surge suppressor, but rather a transformer. I personally don't see a problem with the ones you have as long as you devices have a half decent power factor and they are not exceeding the apparent power rated of your current transformers.

[dany_boy]

Also double check the power supply inputs of all of your devices, most modern switching supplies will happily accept 220V, and even some old ones have a switch in the back that lets you select 220V or 110V.

[Automobili3XF]

10 hours ago, dany_boy said:

Also double check the power supply inputs of all of your devices, most modern switching supplies will happily accept 220V, and even some old ones have a switch in the back that lets you select 220V or 110V.

 My modern devices (like my computer, my TV, my PS3) all haves auto switching power supplies, but my older devices, like my receiver and my SACD require 110v/60hz, so there's that...

[Automobili3XF]

10 hours ago, dany_boy said:

Well then what you need is not a "power stabilizer" or surge suppressor, but rather a transformer. I personally don't see a problem with the ones you have as long as you devices have a half decent power factor and they are not exceeding the apparent power rated of your current transformers.

That's what i said in the post.

My question is, can i connect my devices to a power bar with a circuit breaker and then connect that to a transformer?

[dany_boy]

25 minutes ago, Chevy_Monsenhor said:

That's what i said in the post.

My question is, can i connect my devices to a power bar with a circuit breaker and then connect that to a transformer?

As long as your transformers can handle the apparent power (measured in VA) and your devices don't pull too much current, you should be fine. The real limiting factor here is the transformer, and I would say you might be getting very close to that 1.3kVA limit. When you change your AV receiver I would strongly suggest you get a more capable transformer

[mariushm]

Wow ,.. a lot of problems in this thread.

 

Your mains electricity is most likely 220v .. 230v at 50 Hz  - if you have devices that were designed for 110v, they were most likely designed for 110v 60 Hz

 

The difference in frequency can cause problems in old devices that weren't properly designed to support a wide range of frequency or to be easily sold in different markets just by changing the transformer inside. For example, some devices may use the 60Hz frequency as a timer, and for example increase the seconds on the clock by one every 60 pulses.

From what you listed, only the SACD may be sensitive to frequency, depending on how it was built.  The audio amplifier most likely converts the AC voltage to DC using a bridge rectifier and capacitors, so internally it works with around 150-180v DC and won't care about the mains frequency.

 

The cheap things you use may simply chop the AC sine wave to make it look like a 110v AC sine wave instead of actually doing any power conversion, so those things under your desk may convert 220v AC to 110v AC but keep the frequency to 50 Hz, not 60 Hz.

The lower frequency could affect some transformers, for example if that audio amplifier you have uses a transformer to convert 110v 60 Hz  to 24v AC at a maximum 100 watts, when you feed it with 50 Hz the transformer may have problems doing more than 80 watts or something like that.

Also, the noise you experience may be a consequence of how the conversion inside those devices is done ...

 

If all you care is about converting 230v +/- 10v to 110v AC without caring about the frequency, then the simplest solution would be to just get an isolation transformer with one 230v AC primary winding and one or two (independent, to connect in parallel) 110v AC secondary windings. Basically, a 1:1 transformer. 

This would give you the cleanest AC output... those converters/power stabilizers/whatever don't use them because transformers are expensive and heavy , copper after all isn't cheap.

If you want to also do frequency conversion from 50Hz to 60 Hz, you'd use proper power converters which are expensive.. the things you use now are crap.  However, my advice would be to look for a pure sine wave inverter that would take in 12v-48v DC and output 110v AC 60 Hz pure sine wave .. not simulated sine wave, not some crap fake sinusoidal wave.

 

You then get an ATX power supply (because cheap 12v at lot of current) or an industrial 24v..48v DC power supply and feed the inverter with that DC voltage and the inverter creates pure sine wave 110v 60 Hz .

 

An alternative would be to use an ONLINE UPS designed for US markets (which outputs 110v AC 60Hz on its output sockets) .. these take in some mains voltage, fill up batteries inside them and then from batteries they power whatever you plug in them .. so the devices are permanently powered from batteries or from an isolation transformer, they're not connected directly to mains.  They're basically power inverters.

So the online UPS may accept a wide AC input voltage including 110v AC 50 Hz  but the sockets on your UPS would output 110v AC 60 Hz.