johanson
Oct 1, 2013, 7:27 PM
Post #8 of 18
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Re: [joaquinx] Where to buy voltage regulator in Chapala area
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I too, have had very few problems with or without voltage regulators. Many of the voltage regulators are really step up, step down, or do nothing systems. And that is often OK. Sadly several years ago, the neighborhood transformer was set so high that one would see as high as 143 volts early in the morning when there was a minimum load and the voltage the highest (Fed. regulations state 127 +/- 10%) and anything higher than 139.7 is too high.
Now as I said above, because of how electricity is used and because of the capacity of the system the voltage can vary a great deal by the time of day. After I complained, the inspectors would come out during the afternoon when there was high usage, of course the voltage was lower, about 135. So they said to me that it was OK. It was within 10% of 127 volts therefore legal. I said come back in the early morning say 3 AM and check and you will see illegally high voltages regularly over 141 Volts. They simply shrugged their shoulders and said but it's OK now when they checked. It went on and on and after 3 complaints, I went to a friend at www.esunenergy.com and barrowed a software program and voltage meter that ran 24/7 and allowed me to printout the voltage by the minute in chart form.
It confirmed that what I had reported was correct and I went again to CFE, this time with by the minute documentation and my press card (I used to write an article called Tech Talk for the Guadalajara Reporter).
To make a long story short the neighborhood transformer was stepped down two steps bringing in an average voltage to a community that perhaps needed an additional transformer, and a year or two later a second transformer was added to our neighborhood, near my home and now my voltage is almost always 127 volts +/- about 2% not the allowed 10%.
My point? I have had a voltage regulator plugged in 24/7 for maybe 5 years. I would highly recommend that you too check your line voltage and see if it gets dangerously too high or too low, and so, do something about it.
Remember that many of the more economical voltage regulators are either step-up, step-down or do nothing transformers. It would appear that the amount of the step-up or step-down is about 8 or 9 %, So if your voltage is only 10% over 127 volts which is 139.7 volts and the maximum voltage allowed and your voltage regulator only drops the voltage by 8 or 9%, you are still getting between a little more than to close to 127-9 volts. Now that's a lot better, but not ideal for many electronic items.
Now that my line voltage almost never reaches 129.5 my cheap voltage regulators drop the voltage to slightly less than 120 volts.
What should you do? Well always check your line voltage, and then check with someone knowledgeable to learn what is a safe voltage for those items attached thereto and make corrections when possible and/or necessary.
Oh, one more point. Right now, my and many other neighborhoods close by have great electricity close to the standard here in Mexico of 127 volts. Yet just six miles away are several communities where there are many problems. So for your own good, regularly check out your line voltage. Also remember to check out the line voltage on each of your probably two or perhaps as many as 3 phases. What? Don't understand. Find someone who does.
Good luck.
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