effects of / protection from undervoltage
In the 'do I really need a surge protector for a basic trailer' thread, saw a lot about 'undervoltage'...many responses that 'undervoltage is more common that a surge, and causes as much or more damag...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
I do monitor a kill-a-watt meter and use a watt meter, too.
I use a Sola Basic autoformer to which I have added external surge protection. I have experienced surge--but far more often low voltage.
I tweaked the autoformer to cut in at 113 volts. (factory was 110) It has 3 layers of boost and one of buck.
Hughes makes a nice autoformer with more bells and whistles than I have.
I do combine the autoformer with the load support on the Magnum inverter/charger. Since I have a more than average size battery bank, this gives me superior results to some ems devices.
My air conditioner is much happier at my brother's cottage where line voltage is always on the low side. So are my inductive devices, when I use the autoformer.
While low voltage generally doesn't harm resistance devices--be aware that the usable power changes by the square of the voltage.
For example:
107 x 107 = 11,449
122 x 122 = 14,884
11449 / 14884 =~76.9% or about a 23% lost of wattage.
I do monitor a kill-a-watt meter and use a watt meter, too.
I use a Sola Basic autoformer to which I have added external surge protection. I have experienced surge--but far more often low voltage.
I tweaked the autoformer to cut in at 113 volts. (factory was 110) It has 3 layers of boost and one of buck.
Hughes makes a nice autoformer with more bells and whistles than I have.
I do combine the autoformer with the load support on the Magnum inverter/charger. Since I have a more than average size battery bank, this gives me superior results to some ems devices.
My air conditioner is much happier at my brother's cottage where line voltage is always on the low side. So are my inductive devices, when I use the autoformer.
While low voltage generally doesn't harm resistance devices--be aware that the usable power changes by the square of the voltage.
For example:
107 x 107 = 11,449
122 x 122 = 14,884
11449 / 14884 =~76.9% or about a 23% lost of wattage.
