voltage in your house

nox_uk

nox_uk

nox_uk

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12 Sep 2006
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758
we've had a run of stuff just dieing this year, the fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, two computers and two hard drives off the top of my head, so i got a UPS to protect our current computers. it's got a volt-in on the front display, which is showing variations currently around 244-256.

this just seems high to me - i thought the uk was on 240v until a few years ago when they dropped it to 230v?

should i be worried about the high-running? or is it not high at all?

Nox
 
I think its run a bit higher so that if the voltage drops a bit it doesn't necessarily cause a power outage. mine is around the same, 230 with an upper range of +10% is 253 or so, shouldn't really go any higher than that.

I find it quite annoying as the size of ups I need has fans which activate at anything over 252, so the fans constantly switch on and off. Impossible to work with it in the same room.
 
UK voltage spec is 230v+10% and 230v-6% - so 216v to 253v in effect.

Bear in mind the voltage meter itself will probably have a 1% error margin - so might show 214v to 256v in reality.

If your meter ever shows outside this range, then you want to notify your energy supplier.
 
I think it was the UK who had 240v originally but then changed to spec to 230v... But added the 10% tolerance so the original system still complied.

Well I think that's what my lecturer said, it was 4 years ago afterall!
 
I think i'd be happier if it wasn't at the extreme of a tolerance. I've got another socket tester somewhere, i'll try that to see if the ups meter is roughly correct, and then guess my option is to not worry about :/

Thanks all

Nox
 
I think the reality is, they didn't drop the UK mains voltage to 230VAC, as it was already compliant with the EU spec due to the wide tolerances.
 
High incoming voltage probably is reducing the life of bulbs and appliances in your house compared to an ideal 220v, not sure how significant the effect is not sure you can blame all those items on it, i did hear a bulb run at 250v lasts half as long as 220v, not sure if true.

You can look into voltage optimisation is the only real solution with a potential to save money on elec bills
 
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Don't bother with 'voltage optimizers', they're snake oil. Drop an email to your DNO saying you've noticed the voltage going over 253v, they're obliged to meter the local transformer for anomalies over a period of a week or so and change the tappings to lower the supplied voltage if it's going out of spec.
 
amigafan2003 said:
UK voltage spec is 230v+10% and 230v-6% - so 216v to 253v in effect.

Bear in mind the voltage meter itself will probably have a 1% error margin - so might show 214v to 256v in reality.

If your meter ever shows outside this range, then you want to notify your energy supplier.
Click to expand...

Not quite, you would need to notify your local energy distributor or Distribution Network Operator (DNO) as it correctly named. For example Western Power Distribution or Norweb. Details of which can be found on your electricity bill.
 
ron3003 said:
Don't bother with 'voltage optimizers', they're snake oil. Drop an email to your DNO saying you've noticed the voltage going over 253v, they're obliged to meter the local transformer for anomalies over a period of a week or so and change the tappings to lower the supplied voltage if it's going out of spec.
Click to expand...

They can afaik save money in certain situations with certain load types but i wouldn't recommend one just for reducing bills unless you could prove there would be a saving but in this case where op suspects that high incoming voltage is costing money by shortening the life of appliances etc it maybe worth while, also op could consider a surge protector for the installation.
 
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bitslice said:
just assume the Electricity Generating Company know what they are doing :o
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Or don't, because they're not infallible. I've had problems at work with new equipment installs tripping overnight that turned out to be the supply voltage hitting nearly 260V when the load on the local network dropped off. We got them to resolve it and everything was fine after that.
 
As above.

Contact your energy supplier.

We had a 400v 3phase supply at work kicking out 468v :eek:
We were not aware at the time why some of our control eqpt was failing or reporting out of voltage range. You always assume what's coming out of the wall is correct. Not always the case. Western power came and put a monitor on for 24 hrs. Identified the fault at the transformer down the street and fixed it.
 
SilverTongue said:
Not quite, you would need to notify your local energy distributor or Distribution Network Operator (DNO) as it correctly named. For example Western Power Distribution or Norweb. Details of which can be found on your electricity bill.
Click to expand...

As has been said contact your supplier. The DNO is required by the ESQR to provide you with 230V+10% and 230V-6%, 50Hz +/- 1%. Anything outside of this they are bound by their own legislation to rectify at their cost.
 
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