"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...

This is apalling!
34 volts drop when you are drawing 26amps. So that is about a kW going to
waste somewhere. At least if you are measuring this at the incomers, you
are
not paying for this lost power directly.

It is just possible that off load you are measuring a falsely high value
due
to a non sinusoidal waveform and the way an avo treats that ( peak
reading,
RMS correction).
Maybe repeat the measurements with a true RMS meter to check this.

Reply to all:

OK, I borrowed my electrician friend's 'Fluke' meter and repeated the
experiment, he thinks it's true ROMS but not certain. One thing is clear, it
puts out some very different readings compared to my cheap Clarke thing -
there's a lesson there in itself!

09:00, measured at incomeres (earth and neutral seem common - there is a
word for this, but can't remember)

no appreciable load (just PC and the odd light bulb) 236volts

(all loads purely resistive)

5Kw 225v
9.5Kw 218v
12Kw 214v

Have I got a case for complaint, or should I just keep quite? I'm aware that
a new 'inverter' style high frequency welder will also solve my welding
problems, this is the main issue, dimming lights aren't something I can get
exited about. And I take the point that if the board adjust the tapings on
their transformer then I may get other problems.

Thanks Julian.