I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.
The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world. Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality of the power supply (keeping a record) ?
TIA
Adrian
Your supplier may install a recording voltmeter if you give them good reason to.
NT
Ask the electricity co. to lend you a recording voltmeter. Free.
Owain
I concur.
There are no cheap options I can think of, but if you have a battery powered laptop, or even a desktop with a back up PSU - you could buy a little gadget which measures the voltage to translate it to an input to the PC. The PC then simply logs it.
I have a modern voltage logging digital voltmeter, but from memory that cost around £200.
...or said laptop, and a UPS - many, my cheapo Belkin included, have voltage monitors and software to allow plotting of incoming voltage over time.
Mike Dodd has brought this to us :
They do, though it had not occurred to me to use that as the input.
Three times in one day? Are you in a part of the UK that's been affected by the recent very heavy rainfall? Are outages a common occurence?
If you are getting power outages on a regular basis, you should be taking it up with your local distribution company, but you'll need to gather some evidence, like a record of date and times over a period of at least a few weeks, to back up your complaint.
Again, take it up with the distribution company operating in your region, low volts and noticeably flickering lights are their problem, not yours.
I take it you have actually tried 'phoning them to ask if they've problems in your area.......
No. Data loggers cost money.
Unfortunately, any such 'monitoring' will at best only be an approximate indication, unless you can be certain that the monitoring software has been calibrated to a recognised laboratory standard.
Buy a cheapo DMM and you'll pay just a few pounds, but buy the same type of DMM that has been calibrated against a laboratory standard and you'll pay significantly more.
In message , Adrian Simpson writes
Summer is the time when planned maintenance is carried out. Reduced load and better weather/more daylight.
You usual supply may have been temporarily re-routed to allow repairs.
Sometimes you can infer what is going on when short interruptions occur
*on the hour* or half hour as switching takes place.Our 11kV overhead is due for refurbishment this Summer so I guess the village of 6500 will be lumped in with the neighbouring town on a single supply.
regards
Well look at the weather...
lightning strikes and floods..
Rest assured the supply company will be well aware of it, and the outages are probably them trying to fix it.
Like as not there is an insulator that has arced over, and continues to 'fizzle'
Knowing how bad it is won't help get it fixed.
In article , Adrian Simpson writes
Grumble at your local distribution co. If they are doing maintenance they will know about that, and should be able to give you a completion date.
If not you may well have a fault on your individual supply in which case its their problem to sort. Are your neighbours having much the same problems?..
CPC do a test meter with RS232 output and PC logging software for something around £20 IIRC. (Unfortunately the RS232 data is proprietry, and I haven't tried using the Windows software.)
Pedantic.
As it happens, a calibrated DMM would present, at best, an approximation of the actual voltage. The approximation, in this case, would be within the stated and certified accuracy of the calibration laboratory (hmmm, I served 12 weeks of my induction working in a Cal. lab)
Anyway, the same argument can equally be applied to those nasty uncertified meters that you can pick up for a few pounds (or, indeed, several hundred pounds), or the UPS. For what it's worth, the UPS reports a voltage +1.5vac above my nasty non-certified, non calibrated Fluke. Or 0.625% overreading against said nasty meter.
Horses for courses, but I don't think that's outside of the scope of the OP's post.
"village of 6500" that's a medium town not a village FFS. In my book small towns start at 500-1000 population.
Oh well.
We have our illusions:-)
Radius of 15 miles tots up to a million or so:-(
regards
>
Radius of 15 miles here might just make 5,000...
Around my house - 15 miles wouldn't even make 500.
Just found this - any use?
But you are in (or very close to) one of the most rural counties of England.
And a radius of 15 miles here wouldn't make anythign near 5,000. largest and emptiest parish in England apparently.
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