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Help Frequency Maps of Japan's Electric Grid by Region

Sarah Szabo

後輩
9 Feb 2018
18
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18
I just got accepted into my school's study abroad Japan program (Yay!) for the summer 2019 session.

I'm going to be operating out of Mishima for a month, and was curious about the maps of Japan's electric grid as I have certain 60Hz devices (Being as I live in America). I know that certain regions in Japan operate on the 50Hz spectrum which may effect certain devices that I have (Like my Revlon hot air brush).

Given that Japan has a mains voltage of 100V, I can bridge this with a travel transformer, but not a frequency gap. 120V at 50Hz (Using a transformer) might still cause overheating or outright failure of my hot air brush as it's only rated at 120V 60Hz.

Are there frequency maps of Japan's electric grid that I can download/view? Is Mishima a 50 or 60Hz region?

Thanks!
 
Ok, thank you!
Your hot air brush (and almost all other devices) are not frequency dependent and will work OK. In fact most things designed for 110/120v will work on 100v, possibly slightly slower but you may not notice any difference. This is because of the tolerance the device has i.e. it will work OK on the design voltage +/- 10% and the mains voltage in Japan is 100v +/- 5% so they practically overlap.
 
Your hot air brush (and almost all other devices) are not frequency dependent and will work OK. In fact most things designed for 110/120v will work on 100v, possibly slightly slower but you may not notice any difference. This is because of the tolerance the device has i.e. it will work OK on the design voltage +/- 10% and the mains voltage in Japan is 100v +/- 5% so they practically overlap.

I can see why this might be appealing, and for most applications you might be right, but this is a bad idea generally.

The function for heat losses due to changes in voltage is V^(2) / R (Voltage Squared Divided By Resistance). Run this for both 120V and 100V and let R be R. We then see that we get 14400/R for the 120V power function and 10,000/R for the 100V power function.

Dividing the two gets us 10,000/14,400 = .694 and we see that the ratio of the voltages 100/120 = .833. Subtracting these from 1 gets us the difference between them. We then see that the difference in wattage is 30.6% increase for a 16.7% decrease in voltage.

This would stress the design tolerances to a point where bad things might start happening, especially after prolonged use. This isn't a problem for smaller devices that don't use much power anyway, but for something like a hairdryer... probably not a good idea (30% of a big number is... a large increase in wattage, and I wouldn't bank on dissipating an unexpected. 3 * 1000 Watts = 300 Watts).

This would be even worse for a hairdryer, which would have to dissipate an extra (0.3 * 1800 = 540W).
 
It is cheaper to buy this hairdryer than to buy an up transformer.
This hairdryer is highly regarded for its price.🙂
イズミ Allure DR-RM77 価格比較

I was more interested in a hot air brush similar to the one that I have which is the REVLON One Step Volumizer Hot Air Brush but a transformer should suffice.

I know that some people in that Amazon review thread were talking about how they used it in the UK with no problems as long as they used a transformer.
 
I can see why this might be appealing, and for most applications you might be right, but this is a bad idea generally.

The function for heat losses due to changes in voltage is V^(2) / R (Voltage Squared Divided By Resistance). Run this for both 120V and 100V and let R be R. We then see that we get 14400/R for the 120V power function and 10,000/R for the 100V power function.

Dividing the two gets us 10,000/14,400 = .694 and we see that the ratio of the voltages 100/120 = .833. Subtracting these from 1 gets us the difference between them. We then see that the difference in wattage is 30.6% increase for a 16.7% decrease in voltage.

This would stress the design tolerances to a point where bad things might start happening, especially after prolonged use. This isn't a problem for smaller devices that don't use much power anyway, but for something like a hairdryer... probably not a good idea (30% of a big number is... a large increase in wattage, and I wouldn't bank on dissipating an unexpected. 3 * 1000 Watts = 300 Watts).

This would be even worse for a hairdryer, which would have to dissipate an extra (0.3 * 1800 = 540W).
What you mentioned is "100V vs. 120V" issues, not "50Hz vs. 60Hz", thus, it occurs everywhere in Japan. In your case, i.e., using a 120V hairdryer for 100V, it doesn't cause serious troubles on your hairdryer. It's just a lower power things. In fact, your dryer would have something like a switch for the lower power or lower temperature, no?
If you're still anxious about the troubles, you can buy a new one in Japan, as Nagashima-san wrote. As you can see, there is no distinction such like "for 50Hz only" or "for 60Hz only" in hairdryers

Welcome to Japan, by the way.

EDIT:
I was more interested in a hot air brush similar to the one that I have which is the REVLON One Step Volumizer Hot Air Brush
You can choose the one you like.
 
I can see why this might be appealing, and for most applications you might be right, but this is a bad idea generally.

The function for heat losses due to changes in voltage is V^(2) / R (Voltage Squared Divided By Resistance). Run this for both 120V and 100V and let R be R. We then see that we get 14400/R for the 120V power function and 10,000/R for the 100V power function.

Dividing the two gets us 10,000/14,400 = .694 and we see that the ratio of the voltages 100/120 = .833. Subtracting these from 1 gets us the difference between them. We then see that the difference in wattage is 30.6% increase for a 16.7% decrease in voltage.

This would stress the design tolerances to a point where bad things might start happening, especially after prolonged use. This isn't a problem for smaller devices that don't use much power anyway, but for something like a hairdryer... probably not a good idea (30% of a big number is... a large increase in wattage, and I wouldn't bank on dissipating an unexpected. 3 * 1000 Watts = 300 Watts).

This would be even worse for a hairdryer, which would have to dissipate an extra (0.3 * 1800 = 540W).
Thanks for the lesson, much appreciated (really). However, in the real world it will work fine.
 
If it's a concern then you could avoid using it at the highest setting. Then you'll be well under its limits.
Or try it at the highest setting for just a few seconds or minutes at a time until you get comfortable that it's not getting too hot.
 
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