Something Really Electrically Strange In Our Home

[Clark Martin]

On Oct 9, 2013, at 6:22 AM, Warren Whiteside wrote:

> Good morning George. It sounds like you are on the right path towards isolating the culprit. Have you ever audited what your power company is sending you? I think most of us with backup (ups) that has a digital meter can see the sometimes wild fluctuations in voltage but I've often wondered how constant the 60 cycle part remains. I have a whole house surge protector but now also have a small solar array which I believe helps mitigate any problems that may be coming via my utility supplied electricity. Power regulation was not my intent with the solar but I see it as an unintended asset for low voltage. Could it be that the mini is more susceptible to utility supplied fluctuations?

Computer power supplies are inherently pretty tolerant of power line variations.



I don't know how current this is but once upon a time...  The power companies would maintain the average power line frequency pretty accurately.  That means the line frequency might drop a little for a while but the generators would be sped up later to compensate.  They did this to keep clocks on time (at least back when clocks used line synchronous motors to keep time, as opposed to a quarts crystal.