As suggested it is probably just simpler to contact National Grid or the relevant municipal power company in your town if it has one and let them know about the issue.
In my neighborhood it is not unusual to 10 - 12 houses on a single transformer, but at least each block's pole pig is on a separate phase, for whatever reason the HV distribution is three phase.
My line voltage varies from a high of about 121V late night to a low of about 117V during the bad hours of 5 - 9PM, distortion of the waveform seems high at all times however.
In my neighborhood it is not unusual to 10 - 12 houses on a single transformer, but at least each block's pole pig is on a separate phase, for whatever reason the HV distribution is three phase.
My line voltage varies from a high of about 121V late night to a low of about 117V during the bad hours of 5 - 9PM, distortion of the waveform seems high at all times however.
wow that's terrible in the UK I have never noticed any fluctuation in the mains unless the device plugged in short circuited. Also consider devices are 13A 230V quite often (industrial cleaners, washing machines) or more in the case of ovens and electric showers.
I have to agree, and I live in a 100 yr old house in a suburb just south of Boston. We did rewire a few years ago, and finally decommissioned all of the old knob & tube wiring which behaved as described.
I'm wondering if the wiring in the OP's house is at least partly the culprit here, if the house hasn't been rewired since the 1960s it is highly likely IMHO.
My line volts varies from 215 to 236V.......I use a boost converter for the B+. The heater current is a bit more fiddly dropping to around 5.8V, a tad on the low side but doesn't effect the output power that much.
That one i can answer. three phase permits exactly what you described, and in addition there are very powerful motors that require 3 phase connections. also, 3 phase is easy to do from the generator point of view. there are very few high output single phase generators that i know of.
transmission lines use sine waves instead of DC, you already know, well in the physical world, you are spinning a magnet right? and when the magnet approaches the coil the voltage rises, and then falls as it passes it, well instead of one coil generators have three. this permits more current to be gathered from the rotational motion with the same size wiring. additionally, the coils are spaced 120 degrees from one another.
Another side-befit of 3 phase is the 'neutral' wire's current assuming a perfectly balanced load gets canceled by the other phase so less conducting material is needed, so two 'single phase' circuits costs more to run compared to three phase.
a side-benefit commonly employed in residential US homes is because of the phase shift, if you take the two non neutral wires and measure there voltage, you get 220~240 volts. which is used to power some high powered motors and induction heaters. which is an advantage because you need half the current for equal power.
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my house is less then 20 years old, so it must be an distribution issue. Doesnt fully rule out my wiring, however. Its something to look into if the power company says there's nothing wrong. ill go bug them about it later this week
Take a video of a voltmeter showing it happening. If the power company doesn't take action tell them you are going to post a video on youtube.
I had to fight them once to pay for my TV repair when the neutral on the pole came off. They told me the ground (literally the dirt in this case) should take over for the neutral enough to keep the 2 phases in balance. It was only $75 but they wouldn't pay it, until I filed in court. Then they paid of course.
Hopefully they will be good about it.
I had to fight them once to pay for my TV repair when the neutral on the pole came off. They told me the ground (literally the dirt in this case) should take over for the neutral enough to keep the 2 phases in balance. It was only $75 but they wouldn't pay it, until I filed in court. Then they paid of course.
Hopefully they will be good about it.
I was actually commenting on the fact that they distribute 3 phase power throughout my neighborhood, a bit unusual IMLE and as George (tubelab) has described in his neighborhood how the utility sends a single phase down each street from a central point. Quite common also in the rural area here in MA where I lasted owned a house. My EE day job is not power systems engineering, but I do have a basic grasp of the technology.
Usually when you register a complaint if the power company takes it seriously they may offer to loan you a strip chart recorder and ask you to log a few days of voltage fluctuations at your house. (This is what I was asked to do some years ago when I was having a similar issue.)
Check the main breaker, and have someone look at the contacts in the meter box if outdoors. Probably the problem lies somewhere else. I'm assuming this is consistent phase to phase and phase to neutral, with no see-sawing with changing load imbalance - if not all of the connections between the transformer and the panel need to be checked. The transformer could be bad or undersized, or the connections to the primary could have deteriorated due to weather, negligence and/or overheating. Lots of other things I could have missed.
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