Take a read of this thread: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1611656
It states that Australia power standards are 230 volts, +10%, -6%. Apparently it changed a while ago from 240v to 230v. Dave From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tony Wright Sent: Thursday, 25 July 2013 12:35 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: UPS Just spoke with my brother about it. He says unfortunately with grid connected solar you are still affected by the voltage of the grid. In his case, he can disconnect from the grid and in that case it outputs at 48v, then an inverter(?) boosts it up to close to 240v (48 x 5). He has measured and it is usually sits around 235 volts when he does this. But when he is connected to the grid, he gets wild fluctuations which he says he's proven are caused entirely by the grid and not his solar set up. His voltages have been between 245 and 267 at times (in Brunswick.) He says you might be able to make a complaint to the grid authority because your voltages are outside of Australian Standards, which he says is +/-10% around 240 volts (so a minimum of 216 volts) On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:15 PM, Paul Keen <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I am a complete novice in this area but does rooftop solar have any impact on supply problems like this. Paul From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of GregAtGregLowDotCom Sent: Thursday, 25 July 2013 12:04 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: UPS No UPS is going to generate power for you. You’d need a generator for that. Do United Energy have any sort of service level agreement? Or any agreement on what the tolerance should be? In the end, it sounds like you need new cabling to your area and only the supply company can do that. Last time I looked at this, the guarantees that they provided were very limited. It was almost as though if anything came out of your power points, you should be giving thanks to them. People have been successful in giving the electricity companies a hard time about quality of supply but it’s a hard road. I know of one in Queensland where they eventually gave in and power conditioned his whole house just to shut him up. (Mind you, he’s also been banned from the High Court as a serial pest so you can imagine the lengths that he was prepared to go to). Is there anything else in your street that could claim a strong need for better quality supply? For example, anyone on sensitive medical equipment? A lot of computing equipment used to be rated as 220V +5% -10%. Those devices should be fine. But those that are 240V nominal might be a problem. I recall that Western Australian areas with 250V nominal used to be a real hassle for some equipment. In desperation, I’d suggest trying: 1. Finding computing equipment that’s designed for 220V rather than 240V. (Some power supplies have switches on them, and you might be able to order a different power adapter for a notebook) 2. Get a big transformer (eg. 2KVA) wound for something like 215V in and 240V out, then use a UPS. Regards, Greg Dr Greg Low 1300SQLSQL (1300 775 775) office | +61 419201410<tel:%2B61%20419201410> mobile│ +61 3 8676 4913<tel:%2B61%203%208676%204913> fax SQL Down Under | Web: www.sqldownunder.com<http://www.sqldownunder.com/> From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stuart Kinnear Sent: Thursday, 25 July 2013 11:50 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: UPS I am suffering major degradation of power supply over these winter months. The voltage drops to 204V during peak load periods and sits any where between 215 to 230 during the day. Contacted United Energy several times - they are playing tricks like not turning up when the problems are manifested and measuring the power at midnight & saying it's OK. Talk to the technicians & they say that because I live at the end of the street & there are several new units >>> tough luck charlie. What I am thinking is to get a decent UPS that would regulate the supply, but I am not sure that they would work over a number of hours. It would need to support 6 PCs. Does anyone have any recommendations ? -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart Kinnear Mobile: 040 704 5686. Office: 03 9589 6502 SK Pro-Active! Pty Ltd acn. 81 072 778 262 PO Box 6117 Cromer, Vic 3193. Australia Business software developers. SQL Server, Visual Basic, C# , Asp.Net, Microsoft Office. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
