This Is What Power Conditioners Are For!

[ttocs]

A highly unusual condition presented itself today. This morning as I was leaving the house I kept hearing both Panamax conditioners clicking fairly often, but didn't think much about it because in the past there have been times when the voltage is just on the cusp of the threshold for either raising or lowering the voltage. But when I returned a couple hours later they were clicking A LOT!, which got my attention. I freaked out when I saw that the voltage was fluctuating wildly from 105-114V and was never stable, not even for more than a second.

So I got out my trusty and cheap meter that I bought specifically to check various things on various devices, including tracking Current, and also as an Hours Meter for my HVAC system. Plugged it into several outlets around the house and got the same wild fluctuations, except that I can now see down to tenths of a Volt.

Next, I shut down any circuit I deemed to be sensitive, and then called the Electrical Utility. I'm now waiting for a crew to arrive. The thought is that it may be a branch on a neighbor's Buckthorn tree that is rubbing on my incoming wires. But in the last few minutes the voltage has stabilized. hmmmmmm . . . .   The tree branch is still touching the wires, but in the last 25 minutes the voltage has remained stable to within 0.4V. So I'm thinking that it's an entirely different problem, altogether.


Anyway, without the power conditioners clicking wildly this problem would not have even been noticed until I tried to use the electric range which was turning on and off, or, wondering why the sump pump was pumping slower than normal, or notice the flickering lights in the basement.

Even with the fluctuating voltage being so far out of range, the Panamax's kept the device voltage to within reason. So it was only the Panamax's that were working really hard clicking their brains out. Those relays got quite a workout today!!

And as I finish writing this, two trucks just pulled up!

edit: The crew says it's the whole block, and is due to a "bad can" up on the pole a few houses down.

[marcl]

Sept 19, 2022 12:52:56 GMT -5 ttocs said:

A highly unusual condition presented itself today. This morning as I was leaving the house I kept hearing both Panamax conditioners clicking fairly often, but didn't think much about it because in the past there have been times when the voltage is just on the cusp of the threshold for either raising or lowering the voltage. But when I returned a couple hours later they were clicking A LOT!, which got my attention. I freaked out when I saw that the voltage was fluctuating wildly from 105-114V and was never stable, not even for more than a second.

So I got out my trusty and cheap meter that I bought specifically to check various things on various devices, including tracking Current, and also as an Hours Meter for my HVAC system. Plugged it into several outlets around the house and got the same wild fluctuations, except that I can now see down to tenths of a Volt.

Next, I shut down any circuit I deemed to be sensitive, and then called the Electrical Utility. I'm now waiting for a crew to arrive. The thought is that it may be a branch on a neighbor's Buckthorn tree that is rubbing on my incoming wires. But in the last few minutes the voltage has stabilized. hmmmmmm . . . .   The tree branch is still touching the wires, but in the last 25 minutes the voltage has remained stable to within 0.4V. So I'm thinking that it's an entirely different problem, altogether.


Anyway, without the power conditioners clicking wildly this problem would not have even been noticed until I tried to use the electric range which was turning on and off, or, wondering why the sump pump was pumping slower than normal, or notice the flickering lights in the basement.

Even with the fluctuating voltage being so far out of range, the Panamax's kept the device voltage to within reason. So it was only the Panamax's that were working really hard clicking their brains out. Those relays got quite a workout today!!

And as I finish writing this, two trucks just pulled up!

edit: The crew says it's the whole block, and is due to a "bad can" up on the pole a few houses down.

That's pretty wild!  At first I was thinking it sounded like a problem I had many years ago where we came home from a weekend trip and parts of the house were okay and parts were dim and some things wouldn't run at all.  Turned out some critter had partially chewed through one phase of the underground service lines.  Electric company brought a transformer to get the voltages back to normal until they could come out and dig around and find the break.  Even more strangely, two months later I came home from yet another weekend trip ... same symptoms!  Knowing what it was, I called the electric company.  Same solution.  And ... the break was in the same place!  Fortunately no electronics were fried during either event.

[AudioHTIT]

Sept 19, 2022 12:52:56 GMT -5 ttocs said:

A highly unusual condition presented itself today. This morning as I was leaving the house I kept hearing both Panamax conditioners clicking fairly often, but didn't think much about it because in the past there have been times when the voltage is just on the cusp of the threshold for either raising or lowering the voltage. But when I returned a couple hours later they were clicking A LOT!, which got my attention. I freaked out when I saw that the voltage was fluctuating wildly from 105-114V and was never stable, not even for more than a second.

So I got out my trusty and cheap meter that I bought specifically to check various things on various devices, including tracking Current, and also as an Hours Meter for my HVAC system. Plugged it into several outlets around the house and got the same wild fluctuations, except that I can now see down to tenths of a Volt.

Next, I shut down any circuit I deemed to be sensitive, and then called the Electrical Utility. I'm now waiting for a crew to arrive. The thought is that it may be a branch on a neighbor's Buckthorn tree that is rubbing on my incoming wires. But in the last few minutes the voltage has stabilized. hmmmmmm . . . .   The tree branch is still touching the wires, but in the last 25 minutes the voltage has remained stable to within 0.4V. So I'm thinking that it's an entirely different problem, altogether.

Anyway, without the power conditioners clicking wildly this problem would not have even been noticed until I tried to use the electric range which was turning on and off, or, wondering why the sump pump was pumping slower than normal, or notice the flickering lights in the basement.

Even with the fluctuating voltage being so far out of range, the Panamax's kept the device voltage to within reason. So it was only the Panamax's that were working really hard clicking their brains out. Those relays got quite a workout today!!

And as I finish writing this, two trucks just pulled up!

edit: The crew says it's the whole block, and is due to a "bad can" up on the pole a few houses down.

When we first finished building our house and started moving in, I noticed some odd voltage fluctuations. Like you I took several measurements, disconnected sensitive stuff, and called PG&E (they respond quickly to 'brown out' situations as it could cost them a lot of money). Turns out when the linesmen were connecting our 400A service (yes, overkill), they didn't tighten one of the lugs at the meter, so it intermittently went low (on just one phase). We were lucky as we'd used the power for many months while still building, but nothing went south. Hope you get it sorted quickly!

Edit: You're right about power conditioners too, I think at the time I had one of those Monster Power 7000s with voltage and current readings, it might have been the first thing to alert me.

[leonski]

My decade Plus year old Panamax is NOT a voltage stabilizer. But does shut down all its outlets above about 135v and below about 95v. It has done so about 3 times since owned.

If our power at the house goes below about 114, I start shutting stuff off and pulling plugs.

The 400va Iso Transformer, however, is a wonder. I'd consider buying a 1000va type or slightly larger and doing some DIY.....and buy a bunch of MOVs to go with it.....