Welcome to Baghdad on the Potomac

[merrylander]

Living in a third world country gets old really fast. Raining, moderate winds and Constipation Energy loses power for two hours - why? Just finished paying the HVAC people because yesterday's four or five quickie power breaks screwed up something in the fancy thermostat.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, doncha jus' LOVE them "Blink !" outages ? I've heard tell they're a LOT rougher on stuff than goin' off & stayin' off. We get 'em here, too.

[Charles]

Those power surges are really rough on an HVAC compressor, forces it to start under load. I would imagine it doesn't do anything positive for my 6L6 GC's either.

Merrylander, are you sure the surges killed your thermostat? Most of those things are battery powered and operate a 24 VDC system. Besides, they are built to switch on and off, kind of like a light switch.

Bought a cheap Hunter digital thermostat a few years ago. Has heat/air/off and fan on/auto. Only other thing it does is tell you when to change the filter. Great thing about it is, if you set it at 72, it comes on at 73, and off at 71. The old Honeywell I had, with the mercury contacts, was never where I wanted it. You could spend 6 months trying to get it set to suit you.

When it comes to digital, I want the dumbest device I can find,
Chas

[merrylander]

We used to just have BG&E as the power company, then Constellation Energy bought into it and the governmaent came up with this half-assed idea of de-regulation. The CEO is a former investment banker so he sank aall the profits into some unrelated to power companies. Needless to say, smartass lost beaucoup $$$, so before the former Republican state government left office (we kicked them out) Constipation was granted a 72% rate increase and they are still claiming it was not enough.

Power generation should not be in private hands, Hydro Quebec and Ontario Hydro charge half of what these jokers do, still make a profit and have enough power generation in the works that they can supply half of the northeastern states.

March of 2008 my battery backup started beeping and putting High Voltage messages on the computer screen. I went to my workshop and put the Fluke across the AC supply - the 120V was at 149.6 volts. I ran around the house unplugging everything, but by the time I made it to the second floor the two TVs had taken the brunt, both failed a month later. I wrote to the PSC and Constipation ended up buying two new TVs.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by merrylander

We used to just have BG&E as the power company, then Constellation Energy bought into it and the governmaent came up with this half-assed idea of de-regulation. The CEO is a former investment banker so he sank aall the profits into some unrelated to power companies. Needless to say, smartass lost beaucoup $$$, so before the former Republican state government left office (we kicked them out) Constipation was granted a 72% rate increase and they are still claiming it was not enough.

Power generation should not be in private hands, Hydro Quebec and Ontario Hydro charge half of what these jokers do, still make a profit and have enough power generation in the works that they can supply half of the northeastern states.

March of 2008 my battery backup started beeping and putting High Voltage messages on the computer screen. I went to my workshop and put the Fluke across the AC supply - the 120V was at 149.6 volts. I ran around the house unplugging everything, but by the time I made it to the second floor the two TVs had taken the brunt, both failed a month later. I wrote to the PSC and Constipation ended up buying two new TVs.

Sounds like a bad ground. Twice I've bad grounds cause erratic voltages. You get a better idea if you pull the cover to the service panel and test both hot legs to the ground lug. If you have 150 VAC on one leg and 90-100 VAC on the other, then it is your ground. The two should add up to 240/250 volts, depending on what the company runs their system at.

Chas

[merrylander]

One of BG&E's techs inspected everything and found no faults in our system. What had happened is that they were "changing some taps" to get ready for summer - whatever that is. While they were working on the sub-station that normally serves us, they had switched us over to a sub-station about two or three times the distance away. It seemed that they simply could not regulate the voltage and it swung all over the place. My battery backup unit made a record of all the over and under voltages. They admitted fault and that is why they coughed up over $700 for the TV sets.

[whoaru99]

Originally Posted by merrylander

...What had happened is that they were "changing some taps" to get ready for summer - whatever that is.

Quite literally just what it sounds like, afaik. Changing taps on transformer(s) to raise the line voltage for summer due to the anticipated additional demand of A/C, etc.

[merrylander]

Well they sure did raise it, all the way up to 149.6 according to my Fluke meter. Another thing about them that totally pisses me off is the constant flickering - and before you say it I know it is not the house wiring.