The quality of the mains sine wave does not matter too much as long as it is able to magnetically excite the transformers of your electronics. Also noise, including RF noise is usually very well filtered out by good quality power supplies. What remains is the current delivery capability of your circuit when it matters. And that is usually dictated by the quality of the internal wiring of your house. İf you are noticing dimming, that is indicative of too much voltage drop in your wiring. İs your house wired with a lower gauge wiring ? Or is it an older house with aluminum wires ? Are there any loose, corroded or bad connections from your panel to the plug ? İs there any 'coiling' of your wire anywhere, causing inductance which resists current delivery if it becomes significant enuf ?
How To Do You Measure the Quality of Your AC Power?
What is the best way to measure the quality of the AC power feeding your listening room? Is there a device you can plug into an outlet that will give you the voltage, frequency, the total amount of distortion relative to a perfect sine wave, etc.? Furthermore, how would you measure the ability of your AC main to deliver transient currents?
It seems like there may be a scenario where you could measure your power quality to be excellent but somewhere in the line you could have a loose or poorly made wiring connection which under heavy load (such as powerful bass notes) you could run into trouble with power delivery. In this scenario, an AC regenerator would not help you, or would help very little.
Just curious what methods people have come up with to systematically analyze their power and how they use those measurements to drive buying decisions or repair work, if needed.
Edit: My apologies for the title typo.
It seems like there may be a scenario where you could measure your power quality to be excellent but somewhere in the line you could have a loose or poorly made wiring connection which under heavy load (such as powerful bass notes) you could run into trouble with power delivery. In this scenario, an AC regenerator would not help you, or would help very little.
Just curious what methods people have come up with to systematically analyze their power and how they use those measurements to drive buying decisions or repair work, if needed.
Edit: My apologies for the title typo.
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Dimming lights from an exercise machine??????????? That's serious. No-one else gets that, although I used to get it when I powered up my old Krell. Sounds like you've just got bad or old or damaged house wiring. Get a competent electrician to re-wire the house. Put the hi-fi on a dedicated circuit back to the company fuse with 20 amp wire. Then enjoy the music! |
@jea48 Thanks for the very practical answer and to @tvad for the tip on contacting the electrical company. We'll see how they react, and if they can come out, I now have a practical list of what to ask them to check. I've asked this question before on threads and this is the best answer I've read to date. No condescension, just expertise. Appreciated, Jim. |
@hilde45: @jea48 Thanks for the very practical answer and to @tvad for the tip on contacting the electrical company. We’ll see how they react, and if they can come out... Tip: My electrician said to tell the Power Company that we had a problem with dimming lights, which would provide a reason for the Power Company to do a power quality check. The Power Company found a neighborhood transformer that needed replacing, and they also found something on our power distribution pole that needed replacing (as well as a few neighbors, so they benefitted too). They also tested every breaker in my panel for continuity (I think the term was continuity...it’s been a while), and said quite a few were out of specification and should be replaced, which I had my electrician do. Thank you to @vk_onfilter for directly answering the OP’s question. |
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