I thought Europe was mostly renewable energy?
Are the electric companies tiering the costs to encourage less usage?
Are there assistance programs to install solar like a few places in the US?
Myself, figure out how to set up a solar panel to run my amplifiers. DC is better for them anyway. The tube heaters used to run off automotive batteries, why 6,4 and 12,8 volts. Since the solar is not going into the mains, no government involvement.
My house has the following electric items:
electric heating (it is still winter here), electric water heater, electric clothes dryer, electric stove / oven, electric microwave, electric TV,
electric computer, electric CD and DVD players, electric lighting, electric vacuum cleaners, electric clocks, and . . .
. . . Low power Vacuum Tube Amplifiers.
Why would I worry about the efficiency of those amplifiers?
You might be interested that my latest low power vacuum tube amplifier has a Power Factor of 0.9.
If I lived in Europe, they would not be able to charge me extra for the power angle of the load that amplifier puts on the power mains.
I find it interesting that General Electric wanted everybody to have all Electric houses.
And Natural Gas companies want everyone to have all Natural Gas houses (including a natural gas refrigerator).
For a brief time, the buses in the Portland metro area were powered by recycled cooking oil.
Now, they want all buses to be electric.
The State of Oregon wants everyone to have electric cars.
Do they think the extra load on the electric power system will all be renewable energy?
Solar powered homes, wind powered homes, car chargers, etc.
What is the energy required to mine materials, manufacture rechargeable electric car batteries, and re-cycle them?
I can drive for mile after mile in Oregon, and not see a single solar cell, single windmill, etc.
There are tax credits for such things, but . . . Oregonian citizens are not really committed to the State of Oregon's plans.
Perhaps it is about politicians keeping their jobs, and nothing to do with providing real solutions.
Just my opinions . . .
. . . And my vacuum tube amplifier really does have a power factor of 0.9
Perhaps I need to move to Europe.
electric heating (it is still winter here), electric water heater, electric clothes dryer, electric stove / oven, electric microwave, electric TV,
electric computer, electric CD and DVD players, electric lighting, electric vacuum cleaners, electric clocks, and . . .
. . . Low power Vacuum Tube Amplifiers.
Why would I worry about the efficiency of those amplifiers?
You might be interested that my latest low power vacuum tube amplifier has a Power Factor of 0.9.
If I lived in Europe, they would not be able to charge me extra for the power angle of the load that amplifier puts on the power mains.
I find it interesting that General Electric wanted everybody to have all Electric houses.
And Natural Gas companies want everyone to have all Natural Gas houses (including a natural gas refrigerator).
For a brief time, the buses in the Portland metro area were powered by recycled cooking oil.
Now, they want all buses to be electric.
The State of Oregon wants everyone to have electric cars.
Do they think the extra load on the electric power system will all be renewable energy?
Solar powered homes, wind powered homes, car chargers, etc.
What is the energy required to mine materials, manufacture rechargeable electric car batteries, and re-cycle them?
I can drive for mile after mile in Oregon, and not see a single solar cell, single windmill, etc.
There are tax credits for such things, but . . . Oregonian citizens are not really committed to the State of Oregon's plans.
Perhaps it is about politicians keeping their jobs, and nothing to do with providing real solutions.
Just my opinions . . .
. . . And my vacuum tube amplifier really does have a power factor of 0.9
Perhaps I need to move to Europe.
Your amplifier would only have a 0.9 PF if it was powered by a PFC switching supply. Not all those little cheapies are, and they draw capacitive spikes just like transformers do.
Power supplies don’t respond to phase angle correction like induction motors do. They need wave shaping to correct - it takes more than just hanging a capacitor across the input. The wave shaping acts more like a modulated inductance.
Power supplies don’t respond to phase angle correction like induction motors do. They need wave shaping to correct - it takes more than just hanging a capacitor across the input. The wave shaping acts more like a modulated inductance.
wg_ski,
Thanks for reading and responding to my post!
I do not use any wave shaping capacitor across the power mains input of my amplifier; nor did I purposely use any other device to normalize the power factor.
The parts I used were all designed to meet other requirements and performance, and not to meet some European power factor BS.
I both love and hate some government regulations. For those of us who are old enough to remember, in 1960, the US government declared that the US was going to "Go Metric". Ha Ha! Good Luck!
The amplifier has 2 secondaries.
One powers the filaments of a 12AY7 dual triode, and two 7591S output tubes. That secondary winding is about 6.7 or 6.8V, so I use a series resistor to get the voltages at 6.3V when the filaments are warmed up.
The other secondary, for the B+, is center tapped. It has two HEXFRED rectifiers for full wave rectification, they drive a very good 5 Henry choke. The choke then drives 200uF, a 100 Ohm series R, 200uF, a 1k Ohm series R, and 200uF.
LCRCRC
There is a 50k Bleeder resistor that goes from 'the junction of the choke output, 200uF cap, and 100 Ohm series resistor', and the other end of the bleeder goes to ground return.
I use a KILL A WATT(R) model P3 electronic meter, it measures ACVrms, Current rms, Watts rms, Volt x Amps, line frequency, and . . .
power factor.
If you want to, you can send me your power factor meter, and I will gladly measure my amplifier power factor with your meter.
I will publish the results on this forum, and . . .
Then I will send your power factor meter back to you (thanks!).
I guess some circuits just work better than others expect them too.
Thanks for reading and responding to my post!
I do not use any wave shaping capacitor across the power mains input of my amplifier; nor did I purposely use any other device to normalize the power factor.
The parts I used were all designed to meet other requirements and performance, and not to meet some European power factor BS.
I both love and hate some government regulations. For those of us who are old enough to remember, in 1960, the US government declared that the US was going to "Go Metric". Ha Ha! Good Luck!
The amplifier has 2 secondaries.
One powers the filaments of a 12AY7 dual triode, and two 7591S output tubes. That secondary winding is about 6.7 or 6.8V, so I use a series resistor to get the voltages at 6.3V when the filaments are warmed up.
The other secondary, for the B+, is center tapped. It has two HEXFRED rectifiers for full wave rectification, they drive a very good 5 Henry choke. The choke then drives 200uF, a 100 Ohm series R, 200uF, a 1k Ohm series R, and 200uF.
LCRCRC
There is a 50k Bleeder resistor that goes from 'the junction of the choke output, 200uF cap, and 100 Ohm series resistor', and the other end of the bleeder goes to ground return.
I use a KILL A WATT(R) model P3 electronic meter, it measures ACVrms, Current rms, Watts rms, Volt x Amps, line frequency, and . . .
power factor.
If you want to, you can send me your power factor meter, and I will gladly measure my amplifier power factor with your meter.
I will publish the results on this forum, and . . .
Then I will send your power factor meter back to you (thanks!).
I guess some circuits just work better than others expect them too.
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In EU we have the same situation: most of the people think that if you don't have a tail pipe, you have a zero emission vehicle and everyone will smile at you.
I strongly believe that we must be fully eclectic, not electric.
Love how this thread has taken a life of its own and going in a couple directions.
I am for renewables (my Master's of Science is in this field (Built Environment with a concentration in Energy Performance and Climate Responsive Architecture)), however, some technologies are not ready. We could get into a whole discussion, though no one has the answers. Instead, we need to recognize the possibly humans have impacted the environment (ex. LA smog and recently, the damage caused by the Ohio train wreck and thousands of animals dying horrific deaths), rather than find out in the next generation we do and we can't do anything about it, plus, do what we can to reduce our impact. Reducing our impact often has financial benefits, for example, gasoline is about $4USD a gallon and will only get higher.
I am for renewables (my Master's of Science is in this field (Built Environment with a concentration in Energy Performance and Climate Responsive Architecture)), however, some technologies are not ready. We could get into a whole discussion, though no one has the answers. Instead, we need to recognize the possibly humans have impacted the environment (ex. LA smog and recently, the damage caused by the Ohio train wreck and thousands of animals dying horrific deaths), rather than find out in the next generation we do and we can't do anything about it, plus, do what we can to reduce our impact. Reducing our impact often has financial benefits, for example, gasoline is about $4USD a gallon and will only get higher.
The only answer is every country does the SAME thing in complete carbon footprint reduction, but that won´t happen. There is little point, say here in Germany goes for massive renewable expansion with a ramping population in the FE/Asia and orders a massive airline fleet running on gasoline with all the runway infrastructure construction work and expansion that it entails with sky high emissions. Why reduce CO2 in one area and it bubbles up unregulated in another ?????? Hypocrisy at it´s best.
I could easily design a tube amp PSU to do a high efficency step down i.e buck regulator and throw away the mains transformer, but the old problem exists when I want to listen when there is no wind or solar !
A&E.O
I could easily design a tube amp PSU to do a high efficency step down i.e buck regulator and throw away the mains transformer, but the old problem exists when I want to listen when there is no wind or solar !
A&E.O
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi
I forget which historical Native American chief of a Northwest tribe who said it, we need to live for the next generation, give them an Earth just as good or better.
Another way to look at is an analogy: so if the majority of people are littering, we should also litter as doesn't make a difference?
Myself, could not live with choosing to not do something. If someone is not bothered, then it is not my business to to force or consider them different because they are not. That's why I don't like politics, tell people how they should think.
As for building amplifiers, the market is changing, however, realized this afternoon watching a video on a one tube radio that I randomly landed on, we might never get to the point where making our own components, however, those building radios have do do their own windings. Though it is possible to build an amplifier completely from scratch:
(can also post the video I am mentioning).
I forget which historical Native American chief of a Northwest tribe who said it, we need to live for the next generation, give them an Earth just as good or better.
Another way to look at is an analogy: so if the majority of people are littering, we should also litter as doesn't make a difference?
Myself, could not live with choosing to not do something. If someone is not bothered, then it is not my business to to force or consider them different because they are not. That's why I don't like politics, tell people how they should think.
As for building amplifiers, the market is changing, however, realized this afternoon watching a video on a one tube radio that I randomly landed on, we might never get to the point where making our own components, however, those building radios have do do their own windings. Though it is possible to build an amplifier completely from scratch:
