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Bruce
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Wollongong, Australia
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08-11-2018, 11:50 AM
1

High Mains Voltage

According to the news this evening Electricity Companies are using a trick to increase your electricity bill by raising the voltage. They are supposed to keep the mains voltage between something like 219 and 253v AC

As we have discussed before where there are clusters of solar systems often the voltage is a bit high but tests have shown that these high voltages are present at night too and hover dangerously close to or exceed 253v.

Power = Amps times Volts

Power is what you pay for (for this exercise we will ignore power factor and impedance). Amps is a function of Volts and Resistance which for a given appliance is constant (it is not always in reality but bear with me)

So Power = Voltage squared divided by Resistance of the appliance

Which means that if the provider increases the voltage the power used increases by the square of that increase so the bastards get more revenue.

The other side effects of that is that your appliances' life is possibly reduced but more importantly your solar system will turn itself off to protect itself from the high voltage and you will not benefit from the power generated on your roof nor will you benefit from the feed in tariffs.

The power company wins every way. I shall record my mains voltage to see what is happening (currently 247v at 10pm)
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MrFraggle
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08-11-2018, 11:59 AM
2

Re: High Mains Voltage

I blame Trump.
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08-11-2018, 12:02 PM
3

Re: High Mains Voltage

We have voltage optimisers fitted at work and they can cause problems with the back up systems, sometimes they think it is a power cut but it is just a drop in voltage.
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08-11-2018, 12:03 PM
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Re: High Mains Voltage

Shocking.
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08-11-2018, 01:57 PM
5

Re: High Mains Voltage

Does this apply to UK too ? we've had several surges of power recently enough to burst light bulbs and set off alarms.
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08-11-2018, 06:45 PM
6

Re: High Mains Voltage

There was a flirtation with voltage regulators/stabilisers in the UK about four years ago - the greatest thing since sliced bread offering great savings on electricity bills. A complete waste of time in the domestic market because they couldn't be used on anything that used a lot of power like electric showers, washing machines and immersion heaters.

All of the electrical calculations in our regulations for domestic use are all based on a voltage of 230V, that's why you will often see products rated at two different wattages, 230 & 240. A load of nonsense, the electricity supply averages out at between 247 and 250 Volts so an immersion heater at 250V will be 3.2kW whereas at 230V it will be 2.9kW thus taking longer to warm up.

Voltage stabilisers limit supplies to 230V so less efficient appliances. The same ridiculous argument is used by the EU to regulate electricity consumption of new appliances not realising that if something takes longer to do, you aren't saving anything at all.
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08-11-2018, 07:11 PM
7

Re: High Mains Voltage

Originally Posted by Bruce ->
According to the news this evening Electricity Companies are using a trick to increase your electricity bill by raising the voltage. They are supposed to keep the mains voltage between something like 219 and 253v AC

As we have discussed before where there are clusters of solar systems often the voltage is a bit high but tests have shown that these high voltages are present at night too and hover dangerously close to or exceed 253v.

Power = Amps times Volts

Power is what you pay for (for this exercise we will ignore power factor and impedance). Amps is a function of Volts and Resistance which for a given appliance is constant (it is not always in reality but bear with me)

So Power = Voltage squared divided by Resistance of the appliance

Which means that if the provider increases the voltage the power used increases by the square of that increase so the bastards get more revenue.

The other side effects of that is that your appliances' life is possibly reduced but more importantly your solar system will turn itself off to protect itself from the high voltage and you will not benefit from the power generated on your roof nor will you benefit from the feed in tariffs.

The power company wins every way. I shall record my mains voltage to see what is happening (currently 247v at 10pm)
Energy is wat you pay for, not power.
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Bruce
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09-11-2018, 01:57 AM
8

Re: High Mains Voltage

Originally Posted by Julie1962 ->
Does this apply to UK too ? we've had several surges of power recently enough to burst light bulbs and set off alarms.
If we do it you can be sure they got the idea from somewhere else.
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09-11-2018, 05:58 AM
9

Re: High Mains Voltage

Our voltage is still 240v although nominally 230v and as all the lamps are designed for 230v they don't last quite as long as they should do.
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Bruce
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10-11-2018, 06:38 AM
10

Re: High Mains Voltage

My unscientific (basically random) observations have the mains voltage varying between 240.2v and 247.7v which is within the range they are supposed to supply however constantly on the high side. As I write this it is 245.6v

I was wrong when I said the lower limit was 219v it is 216v (memory failure). Our nominal voltage is 230v set in the 1980s by the IEC when they decided to rationalise the 220, 230, 240v voltages world wide, before that it had been set in the 1920s to 240v -which I remember was the nominal voltage in the UK too when I was young.



So it does appear that the information was correct and the electricity supply companies are keeping the voltage high to collect more revenue by force feeding your appliances extra power.
 
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