"harry" wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, 23 May 2018 15:20:11 UTC+1, Arthur Ravenscroft wrote:
I have experience of using a power tool abroad before I was aware of the
50 Hz & 60 Hz differences. As a result a Worx mini-power saw motor burnt
out.
So my question is about a small kitchen appliance thats rated at 60Hz is
used here in the UK and we've been using it for more than 10 years. Will
it be using more electricity than it should?

Thanks.

Arthur.

It primarily effects motors.
Many will run faster on 60Hz than 50Hz so sometimes causing overload.
Heaters, no difference.

60Hz is marginally more efficient in the power station than 50Hz.

Voltage differences are the ones to watch out for.


Also, it almost certainly won't affect electronic equipment with a power
supply and low-voltage supply to motors (eg tape transport, record
turntable, motors for turning CD etc), because power supplies, either within
the appliance or external as for a laptop, can cope with either frequency
(and often all voltages between 120 in USA and 220-240 in Europe.

Appliances that will be affected are those with mains-synchronous motors
which will run 60/50 = 20% faster. Also (and I was gobsmacked to learn this)
quite a lot of mains digital clocks (eg in cookers) sync off the mains
frequency, not a quartz crystal. Hence the story a few weeks ago about mains
clocks running too fast or slow (I forget which) because the mains in
mainland Europe had not been constrained within the normal limits of +/- a
tight tolerance, with no nett gain or loss over a 24-hour period.

Voltage difference is a killer: for a resistive load, a 120V appliance will
use 4x power on 240V - unless you use a step-down transformer.