Low Line Voltage

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I live in New Jersey and this area is being hit with a heat wave during the last few days. Yesterday my porch thermometer read 102 in the shade. And my line voltage to the house was down to 110 volts, which is brown out conditions. The voltage starts going into that low zone about 3pm and continues till about 8pm. I think it's from all the air conditioning being used by both businesses and homes.

If voltage gets down to about 105 volts there is a real danger that electric compressors in air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, will overheat and burn out. At 105 volts it's best to shut off those things until voltage returns to above 110. Usually you will only have to have such items off for a couple hours, but it's better to shut them off than have them burn out and then need replacement.

You can monitor your own home voltage very easily with a plug-in voltmeter. Such a meter is about the size of a plug-in night light and can be put in any available outlet. The scale on the meter is easy to read since it only displays from about 96 to 130 volts. This is called an expanded scale meter. There is a "green" range shown from 114 to 126 volts.

You can buy such a meter at Radio Shack for about $10. They list it as Catalog # 22-107 and anyone at the counter can look it up on their computer. These meters are also good for those who use portable generators, or in RV camper type vehicles. In fact you can find such meters at RV stores but they get about $20 for the very same item that Radio Shack sells for $10.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

Answers

That's cool to know. Thanks Gordon.

We recently had the misfortune to go for two days without A/C. Horrible!

During the course of trying to track down the problem, we found that the fuses for the A/C were hot. Excessively hot. We called FPL who said they would check it out. Since we were leaving for dinner we left the gates unlocked so they could access the meter out back and the pole if necessary.

They showed up before we left and pulled the meter. We found that the wires from the meter to our fuse box were aluminum, commonly used back when the house was built, but is not reccomended these days. Since we have been told that we should tighten the connections once a year we usually do that, but these wires we couldn't get to unless the meter comes off, which requires FPL. We tightened them, and soon will replace them with copper, better than aluminum and not requiring the tightening as much. The FPL man said that the aluminum wires could have been causing the brownouts that we have experienced.

He left our meter can unlocked so that we could get an electrician to effect repairs. Wasn't that nice?

On Monday we found the culprit that caused the two days of no A/C. In the air handler there was a wire that heated and melted onto another connection, essentially making a new connection causing the fan to run continually while cooling and heating at the same time. Once we fixed that, A/C only. It took eight hours before the A/C shut off at the normal temp of 78 inside.

sure am glad to have it back. Our prevailing easterly breeze has been kinda weak lately, so it's been sweltering outside. Add to that the mosquito population which has grown considerably after all the recent rain, and the threat of West Nile Virus, and well, you get the picture.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001


Thanks for the info, Gordon. Ten bucks to save an expensive appliance is cheap insurance.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

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