In theory, Chris, yes. But in practise how many people actually know what
the requirements are or are capable of properly measuring the power supply ?
The electric companies are relying on this fact.
FWIW, we looked into this at work recently - problems at some of our sites
with very low voltage. UK spec was changed recently to harmonise across
Europe. I don't have the exact figures to hand, but it used to be something
like 220v in Europe and 240v in UK. Now it is 230v in UK and the rest of
Europe. How did they get away without changing all of the National Grid,
substations, etc. ? They fudged the error-factor so now UK is something
like 230v +15%/-6% and rest of Europe is something like 230v +6%/-15%.
Phase is much more accurately defined, and has a far smaller margin before
it becomes "out of spec" - but that was always the same across UK & Europe
anyway. In reality, nothing has changed in the power supplied either in UK
or rest of Europe, but now manufacturers have to cope with a wider voltage
range if they want to sell products across Europe.
Anyway, back to the point, yes - in theory the power companies are required
to maintain a consistent voltage (within an alarmingly wide margin of
error). In practise, however, they regularly do not maintain this.
Especially in more rural areas. But who can do anything about it ? As
someone else said here - the general attitude of the power companies is "you
get what you're given".
Does it suck ? Yes. Does it bother me ? A little. I know a couple of
SERIOUS hi-fi nuts who have taken matters into their own hands and installed
some serious power-conditioning units (basically, AC-DC-AC conversion) and
run a separate ring-main just for their hi-fi components. Can I hear a
difference ? Well, yes - but more to the point is that the cost of the
hi-fi kit in question means it is worth a sizeable investment in power
conditioning to stop it going boom when the power drops (or rises) out of
spec.
Gosh. 2 topics in a week that I can reply to with some experience ! What
is this list coming to ... ;-)
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Barker [mailto:ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 25 February 2010 17:30
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] Purchase of new camera case successful
That sounds a little suspicious, Jim. I should have thought that they would
have systems monitoring their output, given that they are probably required
by law to maintain a consistent voltage (they are over here). It sounds as
if they were saving a bit of money ...
Chris
On 25 Feb 2010, at 16:55, Jim Nichols wrote:
> I have to agree with you, Ken. I found our voltage low last year, and
> checked several neighboring homes as well. When I found it to be a common
> problem, I called the utility company and had them check it out. They
> eventually found a faulty breaker in one of their capacitor banks, which
> caused a low voltage situation on one phase. When they replaced the
> breaker, all came back to normal. Fortunately, I did not lose any
> appliances.
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