state of our electricity supply

[murdock]

i spent some time in my office today and 3 times the light in my office dimmed the ups kicked in and all my instrument i am working with reset...we are in for a long cold winter.

i ran tests on a site and downloaded the electrical data...besides the voltage fluctuation from 180 to 242 volts...the frequency also went up to 56 hz just after the power was switched back on...i am getting calls for problems like pc boards tracks burning...i have a factory were all the machine shutdown and all the drives indicate overvoltage...the list just goes on...i have been to numerous site where generators have been installed totally illegal...incorrect earthing...incorrectly sized changeover switches...no earth spikes...no neutral earth bonding....now invertors have become the big thing...the modified sine wave of an invertor is 50 worse than the generators i have tested.

what are going to do!!!

[Dave A]

I've checked with my guys this morning. The lowest they've got so far is 196 volts.

I find the invertor story interesting. Is it a make issue, or a general quality problem, Murdock?

[murdock]

i am running tests on various different brands...what i do is load the invertor to 80 % of it full capacity...then see what happens to the voltage on the battery and the output...i am hoping next week with all the public holidays i will get a break to run tests and do reports and some invoicing...so far the only invertor which has held the load specified...is a small unit made in germany...in fact the smallest unit i have seen...it is a 500 watt unit and it is the least affected when loaded to full load not just 80 %...it looks like a big heat sink.