Single phase 16 amp to 13 amp conversion

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Gary_S

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Marlborough
Hi, I have a table saw, that I want to use in my garage, it has the blue 16 amp round pin plug on it. I have seen converters for caravans that have a fly lead with standard 3 pin plug on the end. My question is, will it blow the fuses in the house? I looked on the website Axminster and saw that two reviews mentioned it being okay with a 13 amp plug so am surprised that mine came with 16 amp. Any clues?

Gary
 
You can either use a fly lead or just take the blue plug off and re-wire the lead with a 13A plug. Whether it will blow fuses or not depends on the motor size - up to 1.5kW (2hp) should be fine, 2.2kW (3hp) you will probably pop the odd fuse on start-up and anything bigger will probably not run. I suspect it's on a 16A plug for a reason. Whether it will trip anything out in the supply further upstream will depend entirely on your set-up. Most people have an MCB in the main consumer unit feeding a second MCB in the workshop - is this your arrangement and if so what are the details of the breakers on each?
 
Siggy, at the moment, it is being run by an armature extension from the house across the track where I live, the garage is opposite the house, we live on a farm. Waiting for SSE to come and quote for running a separate power supply to the garage as the electricity cables are over head and the pole is garage side of the track.


Gary
 
I'm not quite sure what you mean by an armature extension. Is the supply coming from the house consumer unit? If so, what is the size of the circuit breaker? If it's an old building you may be on rewirable fuses which are normally either 7.5A, 15A or 30A. Newer installations have MCBs with ratings like B16 - the letter determines the over-current trip characteristic, the number the trip current. These types trip out mechanically to open circuit and are reset by closing the breaker again.
 
I assume armature was a auto-correct mistake and the poster meant to write armoured extension. My garage has a subterranean armoured extension from my house CU to my garage one.
 
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