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Using a voltage regulator

Background: I live in Mexico. We suffer from a highly fluctuating voltage system. I have put voltage regulators on all sensitive electronic equipment (refrigerator, microwave, washer, dryer, computers, modems, routers, etc.) but use an S 15 APC surge protector on the stereo system.

Question: Since the APC a surge protector but NOT a voltage regulator would it be wise to put a voltage regulator between the wall outlet and the APC? Currently I have to set the high end of the APC to 135 volts to prevent it from constantly sounding the alarm and going to battery back-up.

We also suffer from brownouts which can be just as deadly to equipment.
puerto
herman
2,259 posts
 
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Have you considered a UPS? Something like this would do exactly what you want.

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/product-series.cfm?txtSeriesID=937

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mceljo
1,357 posts
 
http://www.apc.com/products/apcav/products/index.cfm?action=detail&base_sku=S15&tab=features

Is this not what you have? If not, it might be an option to consider. I looked up APC S15 and it's a Power Conditioner with battery backup and it does voltage regulation. I have the APC H15 that doesn't include battery backup.

I'll keep looking for an S15 surge protector.
puerto OP
372 posts
 
Mceljo: Yes, that is what I have but in order to regulate the voltage you set low and high voltage parameters. When the voltage crosses those parameters the alarm sounds, the power is shut off and the battery back-up activates. So by definition the S-15 is really a surge protector. My other regulators on the computers, etc. actually do reduce the high voltage to an acceptable level before passing in on to my equipment. This is different than the APC which simply shuts itself off when the voltage is higher than what you set it for. . Thanks for joining in.
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