"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I'm thinking of building an electronic clock control circuit which uses
the 50 Hz mains frequency for time keeping. The reason for this is that
the clock dial is rather large, so probably wouldn't run for long on
battery power, and I don't fancy spending £40 buying a programmable
quartz oscillator chip.

Despite doing some research online and in electrical engineering books,
I can't find a figure for the accuracy of the time keeping of the UK
power grid. Perhaps this is because there aren't official bounds set for
the time error - one of my electrical engineering books says it is a
legal requirement that the frequency be kept "as close as possible to 50
Hz" - but even if this is the case it should be possible to determine a
typical error figure.

From my point of view I'd regard an acceptable error as 5 minutes every
6 months. Does anyone know the typical time error seen on the UK grid,
or where I might find this information? Any suggestions would be much
appreciated.

Best wishes,

Chris Tidy


Can't say about the UK but in the US the clocks that run only on the power
grid and depend on the frequency are very accurate over a long period of
time. I would say more like less than a minuit or less over a year period
of time if the clock its self is up to it. During periods of peak loads the
nominal 60 hz may go down a cycle or so and when the load is taken away the
power company will raise the frequency long enough to get the clocks back in
time.

In other words the power company keeps the frequency to an average of
exectally 60 hz over a long period of time. Much more stable than any clock
you could build that depends on a quartz chip.