Anyone experiencing low voltage at the outlet from cooling demand? At this time of the afternoon (6:00pm) when it's hottest and everyone is home from work, I'm seeing about 99v at the outlet. I've seen as little as 93v today, and I'm wondering if it's bad for the equipment (not to mention TV, stereo, etc.). I did a clearing grind before my shot and my SJ almost stalled even though I hadn't touched the grind setting for a few days.

I actually pulled my variac out and was able to muster about 118v set on maximum to temporarily make my afternoon spro! (I didn't leave the equipment plugged in to the variac for fear of overvoltage later). I leave my Mini on 24/7, but I'm thinking I might turn it off while this is going on.

Any thoughts? Looks like I'm looking at 90F or greater through next weekend here in New Jersey.

Something's amiss there John. I would check with a few neighbors. We are at 126V here in Silver Spring, MD as I type.

Call your electric utility. You have a problem and you need to find it.

Yeah, the neighbors are low too. Put a call in to the electric company. Hopefully they can fix it.

Luckily (or unlucky) I'm anal-retentive enough to notice when my bathroom fan or vibe pump doesn't sound right or I wouldn't have known.

If it is not fixed in about 24 hours then call up the Public Utilities Commission of NJ or whatever it is called there and report the issue. In most cases the allowed deviation from the nominal voltage is 2.5% or maybe 5%. Thee are Federal rules and state rules and it is more than complex but 93V is below any acceptable limit.

I had the opposite happen.. sort of. I noticed that the lights in the kitchen were very bright one evening. Pulled out a meter and one end of the house was at about 145VAC or so. The other end of the house was at about 95 or so. As it turns out, the phone company was out a few days earlier running a new line and they drove in a new ground rod at the pole where my transformer and phone utility comes in. From the pole it all runs buried to the home. The ground rod nicked one leg of the line and the aluminum conductor quickly decomposed on that leg, sending the "extra voltage" to the other leg. Fortunately no damage was done to any appliances or electronics. The utility company ran an emergency drop line from the pole to the box and the next day a crew came out and repaired the damaged wire. I had kept the cut off piece for a while. The wire in the damaged area looked like a Boa had eaten a big rat and most of the aluminum in that section had turned to white, aluminum oxide powder.

On another occasion we were getting about 102 volts instead of our usual 120-123. I called and they sent a fellow out in the repair truck. I told him the problem and he looked at me like I was an idiot, and who are you to tell me about volts- that's my job. I replied to the "look" by saying that I tested it with a Fluke meter (assuming that he thought I looked like a Radio Shack shopper).

He said, "Ya. I have Fluke meter too." He took it out and tested the voltage at the meter and begrudgingly replied, "Ya.it's low." He came back to check a bit later stating that a switch at the little power station down the canyon was bad.

OldNuc wrote:If it is not fixed in about 24 hours then call up the Public Utilities Commission of NJ or whatever it is called there and report the issue. In most cases the allowed deviation from the nominal voltage is 2.5% or maybe 5%. Thee are Federal rules and state rules and it is more than complex but 93V is below any acceptable limit.

Thanks for the info. A truck was out and the tech confirmed after some testing that it was an area problem that they would fix. I'm still at only 108v right now, but we'll see tomorrow. Meanwhile, the HB community has helped my area residents with a power problem

Low and high voltage can be a serious problem for our equipment. High voltage is bad for purely resistive items such as incandescent lamps, quartz heaters and resistance heaters (like in our electric coffee roasters). There is a negative exponential relationship between lifespan and voltage...increase the voltage a little decrease the longevity a lot. Less known is the negative exponential relationship between low voltage and inductive components such as transformers, motors, solenoid coils and vibe pumps (there are lots of these in our equipment). Low voltage makes these devices labor to accomplish their task, which increases internal heating. So, caution is important in watching mains voltage and in using variable voltage transforming devices (e.g., Varicacs). A tiny bit off topic, but worth mentioning I hope.

Maurice

For anyone keeping score, my power is now better, but not 120v. PSE&G called me back the next day to check, and when my wife reported it was 107v at that time was told "Well, it's that time of year".

Truthfully though, the area was developed in the 40s, and it's very high population density, so if they can keep me near 110v I can deal. I may file a complaint with the BPU per OldNuc's recommendation. I couldn't find a regulation online about maximum deviation from nominal voltage, but did find a reference in a filing talking about +/- 8%, which would be minimum of 110v.