Receptacle Voltages?

[km6xz]

I did not quote anything, I read about the these systems for years in IEEE Spectrum and paraphrased what has been in the journals for a long time. There is a lot of tech information on these, with hundreds of projects on the drawing boards so it is of interest to trade journals and their advertisers.
There is even an interesting exhibit at the Communications Museum here that deals primarily with A.C Popov but also has electrical system and space communications sections. They have lots of photos and one insulator from a Siberian inverter station. It is two stories high. The USSR was always interested in power transmission efficiency because of the vast distances to cover between sources and population centers. They were pretty advanced in HV AC also and developed suitable materials for million volt systems first.

[soundguruman]

Forum Bully,
Actually I was answering a question.
I am not here to gain your approval, and I don't care if you approve or not.
I was not posting this information for you, but for anyone else BUT you.
Professor Allen, being a grid power engineer, could certainly explain this far better than I could.

[soundguruman]

Chucky,

I am a licensed electrical contractor, a certified general electrician, and believe it or not, I know a little about my subject.
Stay skeptical, my friends.

[Steve Conner]

HVDC links certainly do exist, we are working on condition monitoring equipment for a 2GW one right now.

However, the "stepped sine wave power" is a bit of an exaggeration. HVDC converter stations do indeed work with pretty nasty waveforms internally, but they have harmonic filter yards almost the size of a football field to notch out the worst current harmonics, so the power quality at the grid interface is really no worse than with ordinary generators. They have to do this because there are legal limits for distortion on the line voltage, as any licensed electrical contractor would know.

Utilities commonly allow the peaks of the line voltage to flatten off within the limits allowed by the distortion spec, but that has nothing to do with HVDC power transmission. It's caused by rectifier loads without power factor correction, but it also helps to improve the power factor of said rectifier loads, so they just let it happen.

[soundguruman]

I like modern nuclear power. Clean and efficient if implemented correctly.

Nuclear Energy is the most foolish and irresponsible method of generating electricity ever conceived by humans.
You should quote me on that.

[Kazooman]

Hey everybody, I have a general question that I've had trouble finding an answer for. How much voltage is too high to have at the wall receptacle for amps, pedals etc.? Somebody told me that the voltages in my receptacles were too high at 126-127 volts AC. I thought most electronics had power converters that change the voltage to DC and the proper amounts, I guess there could be an excessive point but what would that be?

I'd really appreciate any info cause I'd hate to damage my equipment.

I play around with several vintage amps and tape echos. The voltage thing drives me nuts at times. The tape echos have multitap transformers in them, with a half dozen choices. However, the two I could use are 110 and 130 and my line voltage hovers somewhere in between. So, I can either run the unit a bit too hot or a bit too cold.

I finally decided to address the problem with a "buck-booster" transformer (autotransformer). Commercial units have all sorts of choices on the wiring to match the input voltage to the desired output, but they do cost money. I built my own from a small transformer I had lying around. There is a good general article about this at the geofex website: http://www.geofex.com/index.htm Select "Tube Guitar Amp Tech Pages" from the lefthand column and then Vintage AC power from the menu. Very simple and it works great. There does remain the problem that the line voltage does vary somewhat depending on local usage.

[soundguruman]

HVDC links certainly do exist, we are working on condition monitoring equipment for a 2GW one right now.

However, the "stepped sine wave power" is a bit of an exaggeration. HVDC converter stations do indeed work with pretty nasty waveforms internally, but they have harmonic filter yards almost the size of a football field to notch out the worst current harmonics, so the power quality at the grid interface is really no worse than with ordinary generators. They have to do this because there are legal limits for distortion on the line voltage, as any licensed electrical contractor would know.

Utilities commonly allow the peaks of the line voltage to flatten off within the limits allowed by the distortion spec, but that has nothing to do with HVDC power transmission. It's caused by rectifier loads without power factor correction, but it also helps to improve the power factor of said rectifier loads, so they just let it happen.

Actually, every electric contractor in CA would not know that.
We are intentionally broken up into "specialties" by the state educational system.
My specialty is electrical / electronics. Like controls, sensors, audio video, etc...
Another specialty could be grid engineering, etc...filtering harmonics, power factor correction, etc...
This is because the state wants knowledge separated among many people, into specialties.
One contractor does not invade the territory of another contractor, and competition is minimized.
Seems silly, I know.

I have no doubt that the educational system in other parts of the world is much better.

[soundguruman]

Yes many times you are better off lowering the voltage.
Many people use a variac instead of a fixed buck boost.

[DrGonz78]

I have read of power wiring in houses that were a bit above 120 Volts AC. It was on a ghost hunters type show and then an electrician was called up to come fix the problem. Don't forget that wiring in many older houses have not been changed in 50 years... In that episode of that ghost type show the TV kept turning off on it's own, so there was a problem w/ the lines running to hot to the TV. How did we all start running off to HVDC land? Either way this forum is always entertaining and educational!! All I can say is I can't wait to check this thread in another 24 hours.

[Steve Conner]

For extra Frankenstein vibe, you might like to try a motor-driven variac to regulate your line voltage automatically.

For a more modern option, some computer UPS units offer regulation using relays and buck-boost taps on the internal transformer. The really high-end ones convert the mains to DC and regenerate it as a pure sine wave using an inverter, hopefully with a very close voltage tolerance.

[pdf64]

Wow, how interesting, I thought that the ac vs dc transmission / distribution system debate had died 100 years ago, with Edison and Tesla.
Pete

[soundguruman]

I have read of power wiring in houses that were a bit above 120 Volts AC. It was on a ghost hunters type show and then an electrician was called up to come fix the problem. Don't forget that wiring in many older houses have not been changed in 50 years... In that episode of that ghost type show the TV kept turning off on it's own, so there was a problem w/ the lines running to hot to the TV. How did we all start running off to HVDC land? Either way this forum is always entertaining and educational!! All I can say is I can't wait to check this thread in another 24 hours.

Perhaps you did not realize that ALL TV reality shows are scripted and 100% FAKE.
Sorry to interrupt your disillusion.

[soundguruman]

Don't EVEN use the word "edison" in a sentence with Tesla.
Edison was a phoney, a rip off artist, and a total jerk.
Tesla was a Genius. He was the architect of the modern world.

Indecently, Edison did not invent the light bulb either. Surprise.

[Jazz P Bass]

.Indecently, Edison did not invent the light bulb either. Surprise.

No he did not.
What he did do and it took many different iterations, is make a filament that lasted more than a few hours.
(he ended up twisting bamboo fiber around the metal filament)

[soundguruman]

No he did not.
What he did do and it took many different iterations, is make a filament that lasted more than a few hours.
(he ended up twisting bamboo fiber around the metal filament)

I think it's about time to straighten out this story.
Edison had absolutely nothing to do with the invention of the carbonized bamboo filament.
He in fact stole the idea from another inventor, and claimed that he invented it.
That inventor successfully sued Edison for patent infringement.
Edison NEVER sold a single light bulb. The patent office banned him from doing so.
In fact he was sued again and again for infringement, by several REAL inventors.
His "invention" of the light bulb was in fact a complete grandiose failure.

It was the Edison controlled media, that convinced the public that Edison invented the light-bulb.
And many people still believe the deception, to this very day.

Edison in fact, fabricated an elaborate story: That he had employed dozens of technicians who worked day and night to "find" the perfect filament.
In the end, that's all it was-a story, it never happened.

The REAL inventor of the incandescent light bulb: Warren De La Rue, an Englishman
The REAL inventor of the carbonized bamboo filament: Albert Swan
The REAL inventor of radio: Nicola Tesla (also remote control, robotics, wireless power transmission, brush-less AC motors, etc...etc...)

And now I have given credit, where credit was due.