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OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
I was always taught at school that the mains was exactly 250V. But I
can't find any documents anywhere which claim that this is the case.
According to Wipikedia (which is never wrong), the original
specification was
240V +/- 6%
This was then revised to
230V +10% / -6%
and then revised again to
230V +/- 10%
which would therefore allow anything between 207V to 253V.
So does that *really* mean that all UK equipment is supposed to work
with absolutely any voltage that falls between 207V and 253V?
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> OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
Get a multimeter and a car and you could probably make a nice picture :-)
> I was always taught at school that the mains was exactly 250V.
I never heard that before.
> and then revised again to
>
> 230V +/- 10%
>
> which would therefore allow anything between 207V to 253V.
>
> So does that *really* mean that all UK equipment is supposed to work
> with absolutely any voltage that falls between 207V and 253V?
Yes.
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"scott" <sco### [at] scott com> wrote:
> > I was always taught at school that the mains was exactly 250V.
>
> I never heard that before.
>
I have and still say 250 Vac if I don't think about it.
Stephen
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Invisible wrote:
> OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
Don't forget it's AC, so you also have to figure out whether you mean peak,
RMS, or what. Plus you should check the frequency.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!
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Darren New wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
>
> Don't forget it's AC, so you also have to figure out whether you mean
> peak, RMS, or what. Plus you should check the frequency.
230V RMS at 50 Hz. (I don't see any sources stating what the allowable
variation in frequency is.)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 4-6-2009 11:41, Invisible wrote:
> OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
>
> I was always taught at school that the mains was exactly 250V. But I
> can't find any documents anywhere which claim that this is the case.
>
> According to Wipikedia (which is never wrong), the original
> specification was
>
> 240V +/- 6%
>
> This was then revised to
>
> 230V +10% / -6%
>
> and then revised again to
>
> 230V +/- 10%
IIRC it used to be 240 (or perhaps 250) for some islands and 220 for the
mainland of Europe. The 230 is the result a committee trying to
standardize the EU.
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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>> Invisible wrote:
>>> OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
>>
>> Don't forget it's AC, so you also have to figure out whether you mean
>> peak, RMS, or what. Plus you should check the frequency.
>
> 230V RMS at 50 Hz. (I don't see any sources stating what the allowable
> variation in frequency is.)
>
Frequency shouldn't vary much. Some alarm clocks are dependent on the
frequency of the power feed.
--
~Mike
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Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com> wrote:
> Frequency shouldn't vary much.
AFAIK, while the voltage can vary quite some (like eg. the stated 10%),
they are extremely careful to have the frequency as accurate as possible.
And we are talking about very tiny fractions of a hertz here.
If I'm not mistaken, this is so severely imposed that an electric company
feeding the system with even the tiniest discrepance in the frequency or
phase is automatically dropped. I think it has something to do with energy
loss when two sources produce alternate current not exactly in sync. The
only way to avoid energy loss because of desynced AC current is to have
all sources exactly at the same frequency and phase.
Thus a wall socket is a really accurate and reliable 50 Hz timer.
--
- Warp
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On 4-6-2009 22:52, Mike Raiford wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> Darren New wrote:
>>> Invisible wrote:
>>>> OK, so what *is* the correct mains voltage in the UK?
>>>
>>> Don't forget it's AC, so you also have to figure out whether you mean
>>> peak, RMS, or what. Plus you should check the frequency.
>>
>> 230V RMS at 50 Hz. (I don't see any sources stating what the allowable
>> variation in frequency is.)
>>
>
> Frequency shouldn't vary much. Some alarm clocks are dependent on the
> frequency of the power feed.
>
Can't find a reference for the tolerance of the frequency even though
the amplitude tolerance is easy to find. :( Tolerance is at any time a
few percent. Yet, there should be (almost?) exactly 4320000 cycles in 24
hours (assuming 50Hz). Under most circumstances the frequency is
actually very close to 50Hz except at times of (unpredicted) peak
currents, but that will be compensated later.
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Warp wrote:
> Thus a wall socket is a really accurate and reliable 50 Hz timer.
In the USA, it's a very accurate 60Hz, but if it drifts at all, during the
last minute of the day, they adjust the frequency to get exactly the right
number of ticks in. Probably because of the alarm clock thing, if nothing
else.
It might need to be more regulated on three-phase wiring, and I don't know
if the frequency is different between the generator and the wall-socket
(altho I doubt it), so I'm not sure just where the accuracy is enforced.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!
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