Caselec
I believe the answer was well covered by the rest of the posts. It will not be cheaper to run the 3 Phase equipment vs properly sized 1 phase equipment. Watts are Watts. Add the unavoidable inefficiency of a phase converter and the running cost will increase.
Like ElectricAl I have had clients who wanted 3 phase in normally 1 phase areas (Apt complex). They cannot understand why the POCO bills are always slightly higher than there 1 phase buildings. After all a slick salesman had sold them on CHEAPER power and they cannot admit the got bamboozaled.


ed