Desk Light Transformer

[Don Y]

No danger of fire/ignition at 100K!

[James Wilkinson]

I had a fluorescent tube with a non-electronic ballast which would cause my UPS (which also runs the house lighting to make bulbs last longer) to hum loudly. Not sure what was wrong, but I traced it to the capacitor.

[James Wilkinson]

Worthy of a Nobel prize for inventing a new form of refrigeration.

[James Wilkinson]

Maybe if potassium is involved?

[James Wilkinson]

Why did you use the adjective "little"?

If you can withstand the horrid American accent.

[James Wilkinson]

There are plenty Americans in films that sound fine. Not all Americans have a ridiculously strong accent.

And are the nurses hot?

[Don Y]

Phosphorus?

[Don Y]

Hmmm... load was too reactive for the UPS?

[Why does the UPS run the household lights? How big a UPS? How is it tied in to the general lighting circuit?]

[James Wilkinson]

Or that.

[James Wilkinson]

The UPS manages to power anything else, motors, etc, etc.

My incoming mains is often too high a voltage. The UPS steps it down if it is. The lights last longer.

1500VA, 960W.

It's primarily for the computer etc. But I took the wire going into the output of the lighting fuse in the fusebox and ran it to a plug which plugs in where the computer does.

[Don Y]

When i was a kid, neighbor (science teacher) gave me a little (really little!) bottle of phospohorus dissolved in carbon disulfide (? I'm just pulling that name out of an ancient memory so it may be wrong).

Put a few drops on something. Wait for it to "evaporate" and then -- poof!

To a little kid, it was wicked cool! "Magic" (up to then, the only other ways to create fire involved SPARKS or open flame!)

[James Wilkinson]

As a kid I used to love blowing up capacitors by overloading them. Things involving petrol were also cool.

[Don Y]

Motors are typ lagging power factor; capacitors, leading.

Ah, OK. Incandescent lamps? Or, LED/fluorescent?

In the former case, you can purchase "commercial" bulbs that are rated for 130V (instead of 120). This reduces light output, a bit. But, also gives you a longer lasting bulb (heavier filament). Until dimmable LED's become affordable, all of our "lamps on dimmers" are commercial incandescents.

You might look for a CVT (constant voltage transformer). As they don't rely on "actives" as much, you can usually get much higher capacity than would be practical in a solid state UPS.

[I had a "Lion Tamer" -- a play on the phrase "line tamer" or perhaps vice versa? -- that was pretty capable. Also, pretty big and heavy -- as it's lots of copper and iron! :< ]

Ick! An inspector seeing that, here, would probably not know whether to "sh*t or go blind!" In either case, you wouldn't be happy with his "action"!

[James Wilkinson]

It's also happy with cheap shit PC PSUs. And since it has a VA rating and a W rating, I assume they've allowed for phases.

Has been all 3. Moving towards LED as the other two wear out, now almost all LED.

I also want the UPS to run the computer for a few seconds or minutes when the power goes off, so I don't corrupt the disks.

This one is pretty heavy - it's an APC SmartUPS 1500.

Why would I let an inspector into my own home?

[Don Y]

Understood. I'm suggesting different usage. You didn't claim you wanted the *lights* to survive a power outage; just protect them from high mains voltages.

I have three of those (two + a spare) for my automation system.

The lion tamer was much heavier! More like this in terms of weight: (you'll recognize the top as similar to your UPS; the entire bottom is batteries!)

Ever think of selling it? :>

[James Wilkinson]

Why do you consider a fuse in a plug different to a fuse in a fusebox? The circuit is still protected by a 5A fuse.

[Don Y]

What happens when the "lighting fuse in the fusebox" is installed?

If you've literally run it to a *plug*, then when that fusebox fuse is present, the blades of the "plug" are hot, can be touched by someone who's not cautious, can be "plugged into" another circuit which could cause the attached cord to end up carrying a portion of the load intended to be carried by the house wiring *or* could cause the mains to be shorted (if an unpolarized plug that you plugged in "backwards" *or* a polarized plug that you've plugged into a circuit on the other "leg" of the mains!)

Or, the UPS can see mains voltage *impressed* on its outputs.

[James Wilkinson]

Nope. The wire that was coming from the fuse to the lights, now comes from the plug to the lights. None of what you said is possible. Why on earth would I connect the lights to two sources?

[Don Y]

I don't see how you've done this.

The mains go to the load center. Through a fuse/breaker to a branch circuit. The branch circuit feeds the lights.

This wiring is typically *inside* the walls of a structure.

You appear to be suggesting that you removed the wire from the load side of the fuse (*in* the load center) and connected *to* this wire a "plug". That plug can now be mated with a receptacle (e.g., in your UPS).

But, that plug is attached to a wire that travels up through the wall (is your residence wired different than 99.97735% of the homes, here?).

So, you either have a cord dangling out of the load center with a plug on the end.

Or, have a cord running to an outlet or some other point accessible INSIDE the residence (but NOT within the walls themselves) that is wired to the lighting branch circuit.

*AND*, a wire dangling inside the load center, unconnected.

[James Wilkinson]

More illogical assumptions, nothing dangles anywhere. The wire from the load side of the fuse was disconnected from the fuse. So any fuse in there can supply precisely nothing. That wire (still leading down the inside of the wall to the light switches) was extended to a flex running out of the load centre to the UPS's output strip, via a standard mains plug. So basically I have a bunch of lights operated by a mains plug, just like a standard lamp or table lamp does. Removing that plug from the UPS causes me to have a plug with lamps on the other end, much like.... a table lamp.