Questions for house electricians
Discussion
Do we have any electricians among us?
I'm a little curious as to the average voltage found within the household electrical system.
I say curious because I seem to be noticing some odd things.
My TV has a random habit of switching to stand by and then back on again (in the space of a second or so)without any inter action on my part, My original thoughts were spurious Ir signals or signals from the vcr and sky box, but these have all been eliminated now.
The TV has been checked twice at my expense
without a fault being detected, some times it'll occur 4 or 5 times in the space of a minute, and then go for weeks without a problem, other times it'll just do it once and again stay fine for 6 weeks or so.
The random nature and the No fault found situation makes me think harder about the AC supply. I recently renewed the house smoke alarms (A/C powered) as one failed, while wiring the new ones up I noticed that the supply voltage at the multi plug for the unit was 215 V A/C
I was always lead to believe it was between 220/240 V
tonight, the Tv has done it's stuff and the wife reports that the oven sounds slower than normal (it's a fan oven......i was suprised at that as I thought it was gas
) and the lights appear dimmer 
probably just a coinceidence though.
Anyone have an idea on their supply voltage.....or have I just been given the reason to lose the 32" widescreen in favour of a frappin huuuuuuuge LCD/plasma hang on the wall jobby.
I'm a little curious as to the average voltage found within the household electrical system.
I say curious because I seem to be noticing some odd things.
My TV has a random habit of switching to stand by and then back on again (in the space of a second or so)without any inter action on my part, My original thoughts were spurious Ir signals or signals from the vcr and sky box, but these have all been eliminated now.
The TV has been checked twice at my expense
without a fault being detected, some times it'll occur 4 or 5 times in the space of a minute, and then go for weeks without a problem, other times it'll just do it once and again stay fine for 6 weeks or so. The random nature and the No fault found situation makes me think harder about the AC supply. I recently renewed the house smoke alarms (A/C powered) as one failed, while wiring the new ones up I noticed that the supply voltage at the multi plug for the unit was 215 V A/C
I was always lead to believe it was between 220/240 V
tonight, the Tv has done it's stuff and the wife reports that the oven sounds slower than normal (it's a fan oven......i was suprised at that as I thought it was gas
) and the lights appear dimmer probably just a coinceidence though. Anyone have an idea on their supply voltage.....or have I just been given the reason to lose the 32" widescreen in favour of a frappin huuuuuuuge LCD/plasma hang on the wall jobby.
I was discussing this with a friend at the weekend. He said that since we changed from our own standards to European ones the reliability of the supply has dropped.
If you want to see the supply get a UPS with allows you to monitor the supply. We do it at work and its amazing how much the supply varies over 24 hours
If you want to see the supply get a UPS with allows you to monitor the supply. We do it at work and its amazing how much the supply varies over 24 hours
BliarOut said:
Can you borrow a computer UPS? Most have software that graphs your actual supply. It sounds like you are getting a momentary "brown out" ( Leave it Vixpy1
) and the sag in voltage is causing the device to go back into standby.
Do they ever have brown outs at the oxo tower?
Returning to the subject in hand (fnaar, fnaar) my UPS logs show the supply voltage varies from 227 to 248 over a 24 hour period with the high point in the middle of the night /early hours and the low point at 1715-1830. There is another dip at breakfast but only down to 232V.
The frequency also varies between 50 and 48Hz but this seems pretty random in my logs.
The frequency also varies between 50 and 48Hz but this seems pretty random in my logs.
Thanks for the replies, even the comedy ones
I've been messing about with my multimeter again and the voltage still reads 215Vac.
I don't think I can get a UPS in to the home, but i've found a gadget at maplin which plugs into the wall socket and then the consumer plugs into the gadget.....getting to the point, said gadget has an LCD on it which shows the voltage.
might be worth doing some digging into this, she who MUST be obeyed gets rather distressed when she can't watch UKfood
I've been messing about with my multimeter again and the voltage still reads 215Vac.
I don't think I can get a UPS in to the home, but i've found a gadget at maplin which plugs into the wall socket and then the consumer plugs into the gadget.....getting to the point, said gadget has an LCD on it which shows the voltage.
might be worth doing some digging into this, she who MUST be obeyed gets rather distressed when she can't watch UKfood
The electricity supply regulations state the following:
Although you will find that the voltage generated at the power stations hasn't changed (would mean getting all new generators!!), the permitted 'nominal voltage' has changed.
This shouldn't affect your appliances as they should be manufactured to standards to work down to the lowest permitted voltage.
If you are lower than the permitted range I would speak to you electricity supplier as there may be a problem with the supply.
Hope this helps
Chris
Electricity Supply Regs said:
Pre-Jan 1995
nominal voltage = 240V
Permitted tolerence = plus 6% / minus 6%
Permitted voltage range = 225.6 - 254.4V
Jan 1995
nominal voltage = 230V
Permitted tolerence = plus 10% / minus 6%
Permitted voltage range = 216.2 - 253.0V
Jan 2008 (proposed)
Nominal voltage = 230V
Permitted tolerence = plus 10% / minus 10%
Permitted voltage range = 207.0 - 253.0V
Although you will find that the voltage generated at the power stations hasn't changed (would mean getting all new generators!!), the permitted 'nominal voltage' has changed.
This shouldn't affect your appliances as they should be manufactured to standards to work down to the lowest permitted voltage.
If you are lower than the permitted range I would speak to you electricity supplier as there may be a problem with the supply.
Hope this helps
Chris
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