Surge Protector Scorched

pianotuna wrote:
valhalla360,

I've never had the opportunity to measure watts into an autoformer and at the same time measure watts out. I suspect it is a near zero difference, other than a tiny bit to run an incoming voltage sensor circuit board.

The autoformer just has more than one "tap" on a single wound transformer. Sola Basic has one buck at 135 volts, and three boosts, at 110, 100, and 90 volts.

I've tweaked mine to 114, 104, and 94. I've never seen the 94. I suspect that also means the buck is a little high at 139 volts.

I've seen sub 100v at the pedestal at several parks (usually get the generator out if the boosted power drops below 108v but that's pretty rare). Lowest I've seen was 84v and the it was stop-everything and kill the breakers...followed by switching to the generator.

I suspect you don't see much below that because the park breakers usually start popping. This typically corresponds to a busy period with everyone running their air/con, so the park system is pushing the amp limits on the various circuits. Then as the voltage goes down, the compressor amps go up, so it quickly spirals to the point where the park breakers pop. In this case, an autoformer obviously won't do much.

But again, it's largely a myth that autoformers cause you to use any noticeable increase in power except for the fact you can continue to use the power the park agreed to provide when the voltage would otherwise suggest it's smart to disconnect from the pedestal entirely and use ZERO power. (as you indicated, there is a voltage sensor but that shouldn't draw anything noticeable)