LED bulbs

[Jack Peterson]

12 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

. 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!

 Depending where you are and who supplies your Electric you don't need one, In our Area of Negros Our new Digital meters have a voltage check Button. Top right press twice ad up comes the current Voltage Supply

[Tommy T.]

1 minute ago, OnMyWay said:

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.

That sounds good, but I also want a meter inside that I can check easily without having to go outside the house and fence to check. Maybe not so necessary, but I grew accustomed to doing that when living on the yacht - checking amps in and out and also battery voltage or line voltage if hooked up to grid power.

[Tommy T.]

4 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Depending where you are and who supplies your Electric you don't need one, In our Area of Negros Our new Digital meters have a voltage check Button. Top right press twice ad up comes the current Voltage Supply

Thanks Jack. Yeah... I may have to settle for that if inside meter is too expensive or hassle to install. Good that those are available now built in to the meters.

[intrepid]

This is what I have been using without any issues.  The larger ones can be placed before the panel box to handle the whole house loads.

What is an AVR?

An AVR or Automatic Voltage Regulator is a device that is used to regulate voltage automatically—it takes the fluctuating voltage levels of a current and turns it into a constant voltage level. In most cases, the voltage levels fluctuate in a range of -25% to +20%– with AVRs, the range in which these voltage levels fluctuate become smaller, usually around the +/-3% range which is significantly more precise.

The fluctuation in the voltage mainly occurs due to the variation in load from its supply system. This variation can be controlled by installing some equipment that is specialized to control voltage at specific places such as near transformers, generators, feeders, etc. AVRs are provided in more than one point in the power system in order to control the voltage variations.

The basic functions of AVRs are the following:

It stabilizes the output voltage of a generator or any supply system.

It divides the reactive load between the supply system in parallel operation.

It maintains the excitation of the system under fault conditions.

It reduces overvoltage which occurs because of the sudden load of a system.

There are three types of AVRs that are worth mentioning. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses—but all of them still do the basic functions and sometimes even more. In order to fully understand the three kinds of AVRs, you must know its inner workings as well as what makes it stand out from the rest. With that being said, here are the three types of AVRs, namely: The relay type AVR, the servo-motor AVR, and the static voltage regulator.

 

 

 

[jimeve]

11 hours 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?

Our local electric company installed the transformer 15 KVA . They told us if we had one we wouldn't need an AVR as the electric would be constant (stable).

[Mike J]

4 minutes ago, intrepid said:

This is what I have been using without any issues.  The larger ones can be placed before the panel box to handle the whole house loads.

I bought two AVR, and each only lasted a few weeks.  Maybe it was the high voltage coming in at 257 volts, or maybe the brand?  What brand and size are you using?  Maybe time to try again.

[jimeve]

56 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Thanks Jack. Yeah... I may have to settle for that if inside meter is too expensive or hassle to install. Good that those are available now built in to the meters.

Just replaced a sub-meter on a small house that I rent out. That has a button same as Jack's meter.

[Tommy T.]

18 minutes ago, intrepid said:

There are three types of AVRs that are worth mentioning. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses—but all of them still do the basic functions and sometimes even more. In order to fully understand the three kinds of AVRs, you must know its inner workings as well as what makes it stand out from the rest. With that being said, here are the three types of AVRs, namely: The relay type AVR, the servo-motor AVR, and the static voltage regulator.

 

Thanks for that information! Can you maybe answer a couple of questions about these?

Are they available here in P.I.? I assume so since you are talking about those here.

Can you give me an approximate price range - or is that even possible without knowing the exact power load of a home?

[Tukaram (Tim)]

I gave up on LED bulbs here.  When we built the house I put in all LEDs.  Every single one was burned out within 6 months. I replaced them with the pig-tail CF bulbs and they are good for 2-3 years.  Much cheaper, and stand up to the abusive power fluctuations better. 

[Tommy T.]

9 minutes ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

I replaced them with the pig-tail CF bulbs and they are good for 2-3 years.

I had good luck also with CF bulbs on my yacht. I actually used 12 volt versions which also lasted about 2-3 years - still shorter than the advertised life, but better than incandescents for power draw which is critical on a yacht. However, I am going to try the LEDs and install also the AVR. But I will also check line voltage before I do any of that to make sure I don't walk into a problem like Mike had...hopefully! So, give me a couple of years and I will let everyone know how it goes - or before if they start to fail!