Mains 260V AC is that Bad

[pwiles1968]

I recently bought a plug in power monitor just out of curiosity to see ho much power I was consuming, Just realised my mains is running about 260V, one side of me says that is too high, the other side says higher voltage means lower current for the same power which should be a good thing.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Well IIRC the regulations say it should be 230V +/-7%, so that does seem a shade high. Do you go through lightbulbs at a ridiculous rate of knots? Does your vacuum cleaner occasionally rip up the carpet and swallow it whole? Do the mains cables spark and hum like 'Now the storm is at its height - Throw the switch, Igor!'?

Of course, it could be that the meter you've bought isn't terribly accurate...

 

[pwiles1968]

Most of my bulbs are energy saving but I do go through a lot of spot lights in the Kitchen, will bring the meter in to work and try there see if it is different.

 

[pwiles1968]

Double checked with my DVM and the two were within 2V of each other so I am guessing it is right, Peak load now and down to around 240V, will this be bad in Hi Fi terms?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Not ideal, I'd have thought. A call to your local distribution company might be worthwhile.

 

[strobo]

We have one of those mains meter thingies. For ages it read high 230's consistently, with a dip in the vicinity of the kettle whenever it was switched on.

Then two weeks ago it started reading 300-330 volts. I double-checked the reading with my multimeter and a suitably modified mains plug (don't do this at home kids). and it read the usual high 230's.

Then the other day a house round the corner has had their front garden dug up by the leccy people. Theirs is about the tenth house on the estate in the last twelve months to have problems requiring the box wotsit under the front garden to be replaced - all of the ones who have had this have had electrical gremlins (devices burning out etc) before the power finally gave out on them. Our mains meter has behaved itself since their repairs have taken place.

From what I can make out we've got localised earthing problems. Probably something to do with the rainfall/flooding in recent years (I live in Sheffield). I'm just glad almost everything in the house is protected behind surge protectors.

Like Andrew says, contact the supplier asap. It might be an early warning that problems are afoot.

 

[pwiles1968]

Andrew Everard:Not ideal, I'd have thought. A call to your local distribution company might be worthwhile.

Thanks for the link saved me looking it up, Called the central networks number and talked to a nice Lady who said anything over 253 is not good, she is sending an engineer round today.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Excellent. Let us know how it goes...

 

[Dan.m]

how much as these power monitors? where can you get them from? Do they measure power consumption or is that another device?

 

[pwiles1968]

Dan.m:

how much as these power monitors? where can you get them from? Do they measure power consumption or is that another device?

This is the one I bought was £8 it is a simple plug in type, measures Voltage, current, phase, power, and it you put in your unit cost for electricity will tell you hoe much something has cost to run.

There are more expensive wireless ones that you can connect to your Supply line (The Clip on the cable) that will monitor the usage for the whole house, or you can monitor a single device with them, I think they are around £25.

 

[pwiles1968]

Well He came round within a couple of hours, measured our supply with no load, and checked the sub station, as it was 247V was within spec so he could do nothing (It has been below 250V since I first spotted the issue), but apparently they are sending us a monitor, we plug it in to a socket and it logs the voltage after a while we send it back and they will take a look.