[Boatanchors] Long-term AC voltage monitor

[Robert Moses]

I have got El Paso Electric and when I was experiencing voltage sags in
the summer I checked the line voltage and found 80 volts. I called them
up. It was after normal hours and they sent out a crew in about half an
hour -- No charge to me. Their tests matched mine and so they measured
the current out through the pole pig out back that serves 8 houses. It
was maxed out. They then left a current monitor on the transformer for a
week and then came out and switched out the 15 kva transformer for a 25
kva one. As a result I and my 7 neighbors now have no more voltage sags.
I am sure that all of our motors are much happier now. ;-)

On 01/05/2015 12:07 PM, W2HX wrote:
> I have CON ED. I've contacted them about voltage problems. They said I have to hire a licensed electrician to do the monitoring and submit a report. They would not take a technical report from me since I am not licensed as an electrician. I gave up and bought some variacs to run the sensitive equipment. That solution was the most expedient (and probably least expensive!) But I am fortunate that I have test equipment that supports GPIB where I can easily log the output of a HP benchtop volt meter onto my computer. A portable, USB stick, based AC voltage logger seems like a worthwhile project. I wonder if the sellers in China don't have something just like the OP wants.
>
> 73 Eugene W2HX
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Boatanchors [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of manualman at juno.com
> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 1:45 PM
> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Long-term AC voltage monitor
>
> I use two of these to monitor both sides of my 220V AC line. Paid $5 each at two different hamfests. The times the AC voltage got up to around 124 or 125 V AC (obviously the mechanical meter has an error factor too), measuring the filament voltage on several pieces of equipment only showed a voltage increase to about 6.7 volts. The filament voltage rating tolerance on the majority of tubes is +/- 10%, so even at 124 or 125 volts, the filament voltage was still within accepted tolerance. I've got tubes in 50 and 60 year old rigs that are just as old and in use, and still show good emission at these line voltages. Sophisticated computer monitoring of line voltage might be useful for fun and giggles, but really not necessary. If you feel you have a line voltage issue, contact your local utility. They also have monitoring tools and probably would believe them before they believe yours.
>
> Pete, wa2cwa
>
> On Mon, 05 Jan 2015 10:14:10 -0700 Richard Solomon <w1ksz at earthlink.net>
> writes:
>> I use an RCA WV-120B Power Line Monitor. Reacts very quickly to Line
>>
>> Voltage
>> changes.
>>
>> They often come up on auction sites.
>>
>> 73, Dick, W1KSZ
>>
>>
>> On 1/5/2015 10:10 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
>>> To test to see if you need to buck down the line v., put your
>> vintage
>>> gear directly on the line, fire it up and measure the filament v.
>>> Sometimes you can get the 6.3 v. to test, on a line to a dial
>> lamp, if
>>> you are dealing with a receiver for example.  If you see much over
>> 6.3
>>> you need to buck it down.  In a lot of places the v. is
>> seasonally
>>> higher.  It can be lower in summer because all the A/C loads are
>> on.
>>> If you see 120 v. on the line and you have over 6.3 v. (or
>> whatever
>>> the filament is supposed to be) you need to get the line v. down 
>>> because it will probably go higher than 120 at some point.
>>>
>>> This all assumes you don't want to have to buy new tubes every
>> few
>>> years.  Excessive filament v. is what kills tubes.
>>>
>>> 73
>>>
>>> Rob
>>> K5UJ
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