[pedro718]

Thanks for your assistance in advance!

I live in a rural Cambodian setting without electric service from town.

We decided to have a wire run from town through the local power company.

It is a black wire undoubtedly of low quality made in Vietnam or China. It is the one used in town.

The distance is about 1 kilometer; 220v... 15amps

The actual current received seems low; for e.g. has difficulty running even
A small air conditioner.

I suppose my question:

Is there anything we can do to to boost the electric current received.

Our 4 neighbors want to connect into our system; this sounds a little crazy
To me at this point.

Thanks!

Larry

[cdad]

Is the wire that runs from the town 220v also or are there transformers on the poles outside?

[pedro718]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The wire is 220v.

Please excuse me... the electrical people here lack any type of
Technical ability and for the most part follow what has been done
Before and know little of actual electrical theory or applications.

So this is the summary what was found out in a phone call.

There is a pole in town over 1km away with a transformer.

There are no transformers on the line from town to the house.

Thanks!

Larry

[cdad]

Do you happen to know the watts or amps your air conditioner is running at? Also what size the wire is coming to the pole?

[pedro718]

AC... 4.35 amps/ 824w

The same black wire runs from house to pole.

[cdad]

That wire is going to need to be fairly thick in order to run 15 amps over that kind of distance. If there would have been a transformer at both ends (town and pole) then the wire could have been much thinner. From what your describing its almost like a giant extension cord from town.

One of the other experts may pop in with an answer as to wire size. Im trying to find the right tables that address that distance.

[pedro718]

If we were to put a transformer on the pole outside the house... would this help?

Can you give me any indication of size needed?

With a transformer... can we connect our neighbors... very low usage... basic lights and maybe fridge... no a/c.

Changing wire from town is not economically feasible.

Thanks a million!!

[cdad]

Ok, I think I found the references for you. To get a full 15 amps at your end from town over that distance your going to need 1/0 wire running through the cable.

Here is what I did. First off had to convert 1 km to feet:
1 kilometer is 3280 ft.

Then I used this calculator:
Wire Size Calculator

what I put in the number as instructed (1/2 the length) = 1640 ft

It gave the result of using 1/0 wire . To give you an idea of how large that wire is went to Wiki for wire sizes.


American wire gauge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


According to the chart 1/0 is 8.251mm. So if the wire is that large then it should handle your 15 amp load.

As far as neighbors adding to the line you are restricted to the wire size contained in the line and the transformer at the other end inside of town. Your usage for your a/c is only 1/3 of what the line can handle if it is the proper size. If it is smaller then that you lose part of the load you can handle.

[cdad]

If we were to put a transformer on the pole outside the house.... would this help?

Can you give me any indication of size needed?

With a transformer ..... can we connect our neigbors.... very low usage.... basic lights and maybe fridge... no a/c.

Changing wire from town is not economically feasible.

Thanks a million!!!!!

All of this depends on what your power company is willing to do. If they put a transformer on your end (at the house) then they can up the voltage with the same wire and get a higher amount of amps through the transformer. In theory your neighbors and yourself could have the electricity needed to run what you have that way.

Electricity transformers | How they work | Step-up and step-down

[pedro718]

Thanks again for your incredibly useful information and help!

We called our electric guy.

He said we needed an "AUTO VOLTA"

Can only mean an Automatic Transformer.

He said (in his technical best) they come in different sizes and
He didn't know the one we need.

We have the ac mentioned previously, a refrigerator, possibly a box freezer, a washing machine, water pump, pizza deck oven and basic lights.

Its pretty low tech. Our neighbors have only lights, TV and possibly a small refrig.

Can you give me any idea of what to capacity we should look at.

I read that an auto transformer isn't as safe as a regular one. You have any concerns regarding this.

I would imagine its possible to buy a larger one but it's a waste of money because our wire doesn't have enough capacity...

Larry