VFD vs Phase Convertors

[Whitbread]

There's no reason to be buying a panel either. The wiring diagrams and discussion of how to size the components are all over the internet. There's like $50-$100 of components in those boxes. Not worth it IMO. Also odds are whatever box you're using for your fuse and switch had plenty of free space inside for the caps so you may as well install them there.

If you have tons of free time and you're trying to do it as cheaply as humanly possible, then by all means follow plans to build your own from scratch. However, I have very little free time to tinker around but aren't at the point where I can blow $1500+ on equipment at any second either. To me, the time saved from not building from scratch is well worth the extra $100-150 to still save a very large amount vs buying a complete off the shelf unit.

 

[arse_sidewards]

If you have tons of free time and you're trying to do it as cheaply as humanly possible, then by all means follow plans to build your own from scratch. However, I have very little free time to tinker around but aren't at the point where I can blow $1500+ on equipment at any second either. To me, the time saved from not building from scratch is well worth the extra $100-150 to still save a very large amount vs buying a complete off the shelf unit.

For the smaller panels, sure.

For the 15hp on up panels you're pushing up against some pretty high amperage on the 1ph side of things and it's well worth your time to check the voltages on each line and ensure that your capacitor configuration gets those voltages to where they should be (balanced on the two "boring" legs and slightly higher on the "new" leg). Basically you're gonna need to fine tune the thing for your particular motor in order to get it to run efficiently and for the larger sizes it's not really an optional step IMO. Once it's no longer bolt in and go you may as well spend the extra two hours buying all the parts online and making it all fit in a box yourself.