[R-390] Voltage regulation and vintage equipment

[Cecil Acuff]

I work for an electric utility and that's not something your utility would 
do...reducing voltage does not reduce load....it does however put the 
utility at risk of damage claims.  Things with compressors and electric 
motors will not function properly and will overheat.

It is more likely that increased load caused the low voltage 
condition...there is only so much the utility can do to keep the voltage up 
and with the increased heat there comes increased loss in transmission and 
distribution lines only adding to the problem.  It's a house of cards in 
many ways and I am quite surprised there have not been any systems tripped 
off line and blackouts so far...

Cecil
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Shoppa" <tshoppa at wmata.com>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 8:31 AM
Subject: [R-390] Voltage regulation and vintage equipment


I got home, after a very very hot day yesterday (102, which is hot
for here!), and turned on many of my old radios. Lots and lots
of atmospheric noise although no thunderstorms broke in my
neighborhood.

Noticed that for some unknown reason, few to none of the
neon bulbs on the equipment was lit.

Stuck my voltmeter probes into the wall socket, was getting 98VAC.

Found out this morning that the utilities had purposefully cut back
on voltages delivered to limit power demand.

Of course many modern computers and other power supplies will
in fact suck more current as their input voltage drops.

The 390A's, no neons in them, the good old #328's lit up fine although
in retrospect I shouldn't have been contributing to the brownout!

Tim.

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