LED bulbs

[Tommy T.]

Also, there is the consideration that here in the P.I. the herz is only 50, yet the voltage is ~240? Herz should be 60. Plus - as you guys are saying - the quality of power is not always so good and the brown/black outs can't help any either...

 

[Jack Peterson]

3 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Also, there is the consideration that here in the P.I. the herz is only 50, yet the voltage is ~240? Herz should be 60. Plus - as you guys are saying - the quality of power is not always so good and the brown/black outs can't help any either...

 

So I think to sort this issue we can say 2 years is about it? otherwise we will go in circles toing and froing EH?

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jack Peterson

[Tommy T.]

15 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

So I think to sort this issue we can say 2 years is about it? otherwise we will go in circles toing and froing EH?

Agreed! But you are sounding a bit Canadian now Jack, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

agree

Edited July 10, 2019 by Tommy T.

[jimeve]

44 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I also wonder how much brownouts are reducing the life of the bulbs - they cannot be doing them any good

We have a transformer to stabilize the power but brownouts won't help

[Tommy T.]

41 minutes ago, jimeve said:

We have a transformer to stabilize the power but brownouts won't help

Jim... I don't think a transformer will stabilize the power - it only steps the voltage up or down and it will do that proportionally to the input voltage - nominal 230-240 volts.  I believe there are electronic gizmos available that will do what you are thinking. Surge protectors help for voltage spikes but there are also other products that help smooth out the power - and I don't remember what they are called. I am not sure how to protect against brownout or low voltage situations other than having a solar cell system with batteries and automatic switching for those situations... Maybe someone else here is more experienced?

[hk blues]

19 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Jim... I don't think a transformer will stabilize the power - it only steps the voltage up or down and it will do that proportionally to the input voltage - nominal 230-240 volts.  I believe there are electronic gizmos available that will do what you are thinking. Surge protectors help for voltage spikes but there are also other products that help smooth out the power - and I don't remember what they are called. I am not sure how to protect against brownout or low voltage situations other than having a solar cell system with batteries and automatic switching for those situations... Maybe someone else here is more experienced?

I am no expert, but surely even with a solar system thee supply must be interrupted to some extent in a  brownout, albeit briefly? 

[Mike J]

13 hours ago, jimeve said:

Voltage is 220-230.

After losing two video players, I measured our voltage.  It was 257!   Contacted the power company and they adjusted it at the nearest transformer the same day. 

[Tommy T.]

10 hours ago, hk blues said:

I am no expert, but surely even with a solar system thee supply must be interrupted to some extent in a  brownout, albeit briefly? 

I know there are switching devices that detect power loss or drop that will switch from grid power to inverter from batteries in a very short amount of time, but not sure how much delay. I think that is much better than relying totally on grid power that just drops totally or - as in my case on Samal Island for over a week - where the voltage was near 200 only and my aircon was rumbling and labouring until I shut it off completely. The problem might be cost for those switches. I am sure there is someone in the forum with more complete information than mine.

On my yacht, I had a system like that where the inverter automatically kicked in when the power dropped. I know it was fast - maybe a second? I would hardly notice a blink in the lights... But this was a rather small system - not house sized. As I noted before, good, quality surge protectors are a must for aircons and any electronics. I will research to see if I can get whole-house surge protection when we build our home. We cannot afford solar panels yet, but will have the cabling roughed in during construction.

[Tommy T.]

10 minutes ago, Mike J said:

After losing two video players, I measured our voltage.  It was 257!   Contacted the power company and they adjusted it at the nearest transformer the same day. 

That's a bit of a horror story. That makes me think that with our new house I think we should have at least a digital voltmeter permanently installed at the breaker box so I can check it periodically. Thanks for sharing that experience!

[OnMyWay]

12 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

That's a bit of a horror story. That makes me think that with our new house I think we should have at least a digital voltmeter permanently installed at the breaker box so I can check it periodically. Thanks for sharing that experience!

Our digital meters here in Subic Bay Freeport have a digital voltmeter built in.  The digital readout switches between volts and kwh every few seconds.