Ugh… Taiwan 220V is not the same as in Europe and you will fry your stuff if you connect it to those outlets, so please don’t try it unless you want a fried TV and Xbox…
Thats what I figured. We have 220v plugs in the US too and I know not to use my electronics on them
You can safely use the 220V line here in Taiwan, safety for the sake of the device and not necessarily for the user. I’m not sure how the 220V line is generated in your apartment but it is usually 110-0-110 (L-gnd-N). but sometimes, it also come in 220-0-0 or 0-0-220. UL Safety standard for consumer electronic devices the Return line of the output is earth grounded so if the apartment has poor grounding and the wire termination in the AC outlet is incorrect your device or yourself maybe toasted.
To use the 220V line in Taiwan, however it was configured, just remove the ground pin (longest) in the power cord of your device or find a socket adapter without the ground pin. Just don’t touch anything bare wire or metallic in the TV or gaming console and you’ll be fine, some people are sensitive to leakage currents they feel a trickle of micro-ampere running through their fingers.
Except if it’s 110-110 it’s nothing like how its set up in Europe and that would kill your gear, as a 220V device is expecting 220-0. And why on earth would you remove the ground pin if the socked is grounded? That’s just plain stupid and even dangerous. Sure, I know how badly some places are wired up here and in most older places the ground isn’t even connected, but still. On top of that, Taiwan is using 60Hz, not 50Hz which most 220V countries use and that can also potentially cause problems depending on the device you plug in. If it was something cheap then I wouldn’t be too bothered, but the OP wants to hook up his LCD TV and games console, neither of which I consider cheap.
I know people here who have fried 220V devices by plugging them into the AC outlets, it doesn’t happen straight away, but they burn out over time.
Line frequency does not matter significantly b/n 60Hz and 50Hz however which way you plug the device especially for older devices which does not have power factor correction even modern devices can work from 47Hz to 63Hz and PFC circuits are, to some extent quite sensitive to frequency but I doubt it can have physically observable effect unless the design is really bad to cause EMI leaks and instabilities.
The earth ground ‘safety’ pin is obviously for safety but it is non functional with respect to the operation of a device. So you can remove it (at your own risk) without affecting the operation of your gadget, all it does is sucks in all the leakage currents floating about and provides a return path (away from the user) when one of the input wires accidentally touches the power supply casing.
220V device will work on 110-0-110 or 220-0-0, both will be seen as 220Vac by your gear.
Devices failing over (unexpectedly short) time are not meant to operate at that condition. The circuit may function but the components may not be able to handle the electrical stress such as too high a voltage in the capacitors and capacitors are known to handle a bit more on their rating but the life expectancy is reduced.
110-0-110 as you put it wouldn’t be within the standard operating norms of a normal 220V as you have live and neutral, two live wires doesn’t make sense, as that would make it two phase power.
In general electrical wiring here, especially in older places are a mess and playing with the AC sockets is a gamble. But hey, if you want to insure the TV and console for the OP…
I’m also aware that the frequency doesn’t have an impact on modern devices in 90% of the case, but if you get anything with an electrical motor in it, it will have a huge affect.
Not having something grounded does in deed not have an affect on the operational capabilities of most devices, but considering the poor electrical system here, I for one at least can feel the leakage current. This was especially true in the place I lived in in Taoyuan, as both my GF’s laptop on my PC gave me a nice little buzz…
I’m not sure if its a standard but 110-0-110 or 115-0-115 or 120-0-120 is the commonly used configuration (like I said in my first post, usually) as the exposed wire is only half the total and a bit safer than 220-0-0. Don’t ask me how but it can be proven statistically.
There is no 2-phase power, theoretically there is but normal commercial distributed AC power is single phase and industrial distribution is 3-phase or more. 2-phase power means the integral voltage anything more than 0degrees out of phase approaches zero!
So 110-0-110 in single phase systems is additive and would come to 220V.
Like you said, electrical wirings in Taiwan (just the old neighborhood, probably) is a mess so there are no guarantees, just close your eyes, cross your fingers, flip the switch and hear the bang.
The wiring here leaves much to be desired. I fear for my father; He will end up spending his visit totally rewiring my flat/building.
Well, we moved in to a new place (2 years old) and the wiring here is a mess too, BUT at least almost all the sockets are grounded, although I had to replace the sockets on a few that for some reason had ungrounded sockets :loco:
Compared to how I was taught that electrical wiring is to be done, things here are usually held together with a bit of tape, usually with an open drain above it or something similarly dangerous…
Anyhow, this is way off topic now, but just be prepared for the worst…
The 2-phase 220V here is usually +110 to -110 L1 to L2 180 degrees out of phase with the earth pin being connected to neutral as if it were a centre-tap transformer in a Delta-Leg eggs bacon and chips format, but the sockets in the walls are not reliable as many of them have been rewired L1 220V, N, Moon, and Earth. So you take your chances. If the wire’s orange, it’s Delta-Leg. If it’s purple, cut the blue one. Or if you’re really lucky you can get 190V RMS or 208V Long Wave if someone’s rewired it to fit US equipment expecting phase to phase 200V like a fridge I once saw in Tien Mu (it was broken having been connected to a dog by mistake or something). Newer apartments of course might have 4-wire three-phase in additional to single-phase 110V so hey you might even get three phases of 220V with a 380V bonus phase-to-phase, although I’ve never heard of that being supplied to a socket outlet. You’ll know you have 3-phase 380V if you have a green box under your sink with X0 X1 X2 X3 22kV written on it.
This is all explained here where you can clearly see the chap on the left has square green eggs attached to the side of his building instead of round ones.
Behind Ba De Loo where all the pooter shops are there are geek shops selling electrical nonsense and step-up transformers can be had for about NT$1 per Watt, or slightly more. I bought a 2kW one there in er um 1964 and it was NT$2200. Worked fine.
Uhm… wtf? :eh: 
:eh: :loco: :roflmao: :s :eh: 
Not uncommon for older homes. For larger appliances, external ground wire connection screws are often present. Could even be a safer bet in some cases than the safety ground prong, considering you have no idea how it is wired behind the panel. Could just be shorted with the neutral prong.
What annoys me isn’t that there are many installed outlets without an integrated safety ground prong, its that there are outlets and appliances without polarity keying!
Why would you need polarity keying? There’s no such thing in most of Europe where the Schuko plug is used.
Wiring the ground to the neutral would cause a short, so that wouldn’t work…
[quote=“Lord Lucan”]The 2-phase 220V here is usually +110 to -110 L1 to L2 180 degrees out of phase with the earth pin being connected to neutral as if it were a centre-tap transformer in a Delta-Leg eggs bacon and chips format, but the sockets in the walls are not reliable as many of them have been rewired L1 220V, N, Moon, and Earth. So you take your chances. If the wire’s orange, it’s Delta-Leg. If it’s purple, cut the blue one. Or if you’re really lucky you can get 190V RMS or 208V Long Wave if someone’s rewired it to fit US equipment expecting phase to phase 200V like a fridge I once saw in Tianmu (it was broken having been connected to a dog by mistake or something). Newer apartments of course might have 4-wire three-phase in additional to single-phase 110V so hey you might even get three phases of 220V with a 380V bonus phase-to-phase, although I’ve never heard of that being supplied to a socket outlet. You’ll know you have 3-phase 380V if you have a green box under your sink with X0 X1 X2 X3 22kV written on it.
This is all explained here where you can clearly see the chap on the left has square green eggs attached to the side of his building instead of round ones.
Behind Ba De Loo where all the pooter shops are there are geek shops selling electrical nonsense and step-up transformers can be had for about NT$1 per Watt, or slightly more. I bought a 2kW one there in er um 1964 and it was NT$2200. Worked fine.[/quote]
:roflmao: 
Being an American ignoramus I was under the impression that most electronics nowadays come with switching power supplies that can automatically figure out whether the AC source is 100-110V or 220V and switch accordingly, so as long as you have one of those magical power supplies all you need is to get a plug adapter that lets you change the pins to be plugged into an outlet.
Of course not being an electrical engineer myself I assume it’s probably as simple as that.
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Why would you need polarity keying? There’s no such thing in most of Europe where the Schuko plug is used.
Wiring the ground to the neutral would cause a short, so that wouldn’t work…[/quote]
I’m really surpised about this kind of half wisdom. :fume:
If you don’t know what you’re talking about, please don’t give the people here wrong advises, because that can be dangerous.
Before the so called “Schuko” (Schutz Kontakt with dedicated PE (PG)) was introduced in Europe, all outlets had a connection between PE (PG)and neutral (that’s a so called “Klassische Nullung” or they had a connection in the distribution board called “moderne Nullung” - in german - ).
And that’s still better than nothing, because the neutral is always grounded at the powerplant.
I think that’s specific to Germany my friend, never heard of that one…
And as the Schuko and Euro plugs has been pretty much standard as long as I’ve lived, I’m sorry if I’m not aware of some ancient standards that aren’t being used any more.
Just wanted to say thanks for the help!
It turns out my TV has a switching power supply, so the only thing I needed to purchase was a small transformer for my 360. In the basement complex outside of Gunghua I found so many of them. 300W bi-directional converter was 600NT.
Now my TV, Consoles, and PC are all hooked up happily and I can now cringe at the thought of my new power bill.
[quote=“djlowballer”]Just wanted to say thanks for the help!
It turns out my TV has a switching power supply, so the only thing I needed to purchase was a small transformer for my 360. In the basement complex outside of Gunghua I found so many of them. 300W bi-directional converter was 600NT.
Now my TV, Consoles, and PC are all hooked up happily and I can now cringe at the thought of my new power bill.[/quote]
Nice one. Thanks for reporting back and glad it worked out.
Well, I guess the good thing is that electricity isn’t stupidly expensive here, although then again, it’s the most expensive utility bill here…