Why would anyone bother doing something like this, when you can just walk into the closest Radio Shack and buy some? Well, I live in Chile, South America, and while we do have a Radio Shack here, they have never heard about X10. I called X10 Powerhouse in the States to check if they could sell 220V modules direct to me. The answer was of course, NO! However, they did tell me about a distributor of X10 here in Chile. I went over to this office and they did have a few modules in stock but only a couple of mini controllers, some lamp and appliance modules.

This place is, as far as I know, the only place in Chile that sells X10. I ordered a couple of WS467 over a year ago and have not heard anything from them although I have called them every second month. I gave up and imported them myself.

Another reason might be mechanical standards. Here in Chile we use 220V and 50Hz, wall mount boxes are US standard, trimplates are Chilean standard but similar to US, wall outlets are Italian standard with three pins in a row with ground in the middle. This means I cannot buy German wall switches, they have round wall mount boxes. I can not buy UK or Australian appliance modules due to their weird plug standards. However, German style outlets (Schuko) are fairly common here for heavy duty appliances and a Chilean ungrounded, 2 pin plug will normally fit a Schuko outlet.

A third reason is that some modules are simply not available for 220V. I called several European and one Australian dealer trying to get a 220V TW523. This is the power line interface you use for Timecommander-Plus (Homebase) and some other pure software solutions like Plato. Anyway, no luck, they didn't know what I was talking about. Now, you can however buy a 220V TW523.

A fourth reason is price. Here in Chile a CP290 costs 60.000 pesos (145 US$), a lamp module 21.000 pesos (51 US$) a mini controller 18.000 pesos (43.50 US$). This is 3-4 times the US price. And now we have the question, do they have them in stock? Prices are BTW, from mid 1995.

Be sure to read the X10 FAQ before continuing reading this document. It gives you a lot of valuable information. Also, if you are European you might want to look at EIB systems instead of using X10. It should be available "very soon". For some info look at: www.eiba.be. CEB bus and Lonworks might perhaps also become available for 220V in the future. There are already some units available today for 110V but be prepared to pay the price.

Note, that I can not work as a consultant on how to modify things to 220V or something similar. If you cannot find the information you need, try to get a later version. It could take me a lot of time to answer individual questions. If I have modified something new or if I have received information on how to do this, I will try to update these files.

I might try to keep these files updated with info on how to modify things to 220V, not only X10 but other things belonging to home automation, alarm systems, etc. If you have some info that does not appear here send it to me and I will try to include it in later versions. I will also try to place a link to these files and the drawings on the hometeam's www site. However, I prefer to wait until I get some more feedback and corrections so I can create a more complete and better version.

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