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| Subject - testing for surge | |
| wilkie | Have any of you ever been involved with a utility surge cenario, in which the utility placed a component on the meter to track the number and severity of the spikes? The reason I ask is, we have a house that is experiencing surge type symptoms, but the utility begs to differ. Their diagnosis was all of checking the voltage on the meter. I seem to remember a discussion with a fellow tradesman years ago about a similar situation, but the details are escaping me. Any help? |
| NonLinearLoad | Jaimie, It's Jay, "Good to Go?". In utility speak, they have surges all the time, they buffer them so as not to cause too many issues downline to customers. They basically say they don't exist to homeowners, and talk them down to tradesmen. Depending on how the problem presents itself is what would lead you to believe it is a surge. Voltage sensitive equipment, tight tolerances, do not like the shifts. They will just shut down, and or not run correctly. The graphing can be performed by the utility, or by another vendor who is so equipped. This was done years ago at a printing facility that I worked at. The Presses were sensitive to the shifts, and also some pre-press equipment. It was summer time at night when it happened due to all the customers at home and the A/C's going full tilt. Maybe someone has more technical info to shed light??? But as a troubleshooting tech, I would need more info or to see in person to really get a feel. |
| lctrc789 | I have dealt with utility companies on spikes and surges before, and they install a meter that reads out voltage for about 30 days and prints it out. many homes in the suburbs have these problems, and I got to the point of where I always instaled a whole house surge protector and it did seem to help.. Short spikes and surges generally do not do much to anything major but it does play havoc with anything electrconic, or that has small transformers, I have seen GFIs even go bad and the only thing I could think of was surges at one time, as well as door bell transformers and even transformers in the furnaces, for the most part the surge protectors did work quite qell and are not all that expensive.. |
| WELLSEROUSKI | Surges..Ah yes, this last two years I have installed many floresent security lights for apt. complexes and for new home owners. NOW every time a lightinig storm passes through I get calls of lights not working. What a surprise(right). After opening a few I could smell the odor of burnt components. This is bad because they don't want to pay for fixture replacement or my time. I tell them to take the lights back and complain to the manufacurer and I would install any other type of fixture for a fair price.NOT happy people. Now i warn people of these type of light fixtures as they are new on the market. I have even got to the point where I plug them into an extension cord to make sure they work because because when I first started to install them some would not work right out of the box. CYA boys/girls these things are sensitive and warn the customers. On one house nine went out one night at 40.00 bucks a-piece. OUCH!!! |
| JimmyDee | I'm wondering if a $.69 MOV from Radio Shack installed with this fixture will solve the problem. These will clamp the max voltage to what ever their value is. Might be a good investment but I agree with you that the fixture manufacturer should incorporate this protection. Jim |
| NonLinearLoad | Wilkie, What are the surge symptoms that were noticed? Freaky flourescents? Dimmimg incandescents? Incandescents getting bright, then maybe even blowing the filaments out. And possibly blowing hard enough to break the lamps glass. Need a tickler here. |
| kbsparky | You may want to obtain a Dranetz box that can record on a paper graph the number and severity of surges and sags on the power line. There may be an engineering firm that could connect one to your premises for a certain time frame for a fee. Not sure how much of a fee, but I've seen them used on sensitive computer room circuits. 
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| wilkie | Tickler....Homeowner constantly having to replace incandescent lamps. Service equipment looks great. Neutrals all tight. ??????? |
| NonLinearLoad | Hmmm, Overhead I'm assuming? Utility loose neutral connection, have them do a "black box" load test to verify. Incandescents throughout home? Or under high traffic areas and vibration? Is there a time of day when they go out? Do they all happen at once? Have business that has 5 hanging fixtures in showroom, back 2 fixtures eat bulbs on a bi-weekly basis, other 3 burn out normal. Have inspected all fixtures, all splices, all switches. Shut the place down on a sunday mornining and respliced all wires besides inspection of all conditions, couldn't find a thing. One main service with subpanels for 4 occupants, other areas have no issues. Just these two fixtures, a third fixture is on same neutral and switch leg. They haven't called in a few months, my next recourse was to R&R fixtures at lanlords expense and cross my fingers. |
| wilkie | Incandescent only. They are replacing the bulbs all the time. Not a high traffic area, with the problem existing on multiple circuits. Service is underground to house. All connections tight, and the utility, of course, has already said that they don't have a problem. |
| Scott Vickrey | Obtain a chart recorder, set it up for 120 volts and let it run for a few days. This should give you the information you need. You will probably even be able to see some trends and anomilies. Like the AC kicking on or random surges. |
| JimmyDee | quote: This is a great idea. Sometimes the recorder will not pick up the high speed spikes that last a very short period of time and will still do damage to electronic equipment. Jim |
| lctrc789 | Check the voltage and see if they are over 120 volts (not uncommon) in new areas at all...Light bulbs rated at 120 volts go quickly and have them but 130 volts light bulbs they do last much longer and the wattage differnce will not make a difference as far as lighting goes. Have done apartments where they complain of blowing light bulbs especially after the utility company cranks up ther voltage on tapped tranformers to differenciate the differnce in amperage and the voltage has gone from 118 volts to ground to 126 or so they do blow 120 volt light bulbs real quick that way.... |
| NonLinearLoad | Years ago I remember getting 130v lamps, don't remember from where. Is this a supply house special order, or do the HD's, Menards, Lowes carry these animals? |
| WELLSEROUSKI | GREENEELECTRIC. Thanks for reply.. I didn't install a whole panel protector because the owner decided to go with standard fixtures. |