I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?


TIA

Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "news" with "adrian" and "nospam" with "ffoil"
Sorry for the rigmarole, If I want spam, I'll go to the shops
Every time someone says "I don't believe in trolls", another one dies.

On 15 Jun, 22:15, Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.

The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

TIA

Adrian

Your supplier may install a recording voltmeter if you give them good
reason to.


NT

formulated the question :
On 15 Jun, 22:15, Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.

The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

TIA

Adrian

Your supplier may install a recording voltmeter if you give them good
reason to.

I concur.

There are no cheap options I can think of, but if you have a battery
powered laptop, or even a desktop with a back up PSU - you could buy a
little gadget which measures the voltage to translate it to an input to
the PC. The PC then simply logs it.

I have a modern voltage logging digital voltmeter, but from memory that
cost around £200.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Harry Bloomfield wrote:
formulated the question :
On 15 Jun, 22:15, Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.

The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

TIA

Adrian

Your supplier may install a recording voltmeter if you give them good
reason to.

I concur.

There are no cheap options I can think of, but if you have a battery
powered laptop, or even a desktop with a back up PSU - you could buy a
little gadget which measures the voltage to translate it to an input to
the PC. The PC then simply logs it.

I have a modern voltage logging digital voltmeter, but from memory that
cost around £200.


....or said laptop, and a UPS - many, my cheapo Belkin included, have
voltage monitors and software to allow plotting of incoming voltage over
time.

Mike Dodd has brought this to us :
...or said laptop, and a UPS - many, my cheapo Belkin included, have voltage
monitors and software to allow plotting of incoming voltage over time.

They do, though it had not occurred to me to use that as the input.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:15:20 +0100, Adrian Simpson wrote:

I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far),

Three times in one day? Are you in a part of the UK that's been affected by
the recent very heavy rainfall? Are outages a common occurence?

If you are getting power outages on a regular basis, you should be taking
it up with your local distribution company, but you'll need to gather some
evidence, like a record of date and times over a period of at least a few
weeks, to back up your complaint.

and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering).

Again, take it up with the distribution company operating in your region,
low volts and noticeably flickering lights are their problem, not yours.

I take it you have actually tried 'phoning them to ask if they've problems
in your area.......

Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

No. Data loggers cost money.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:02:15 +0100, Mike Dodd wrote:

Harry Bloomfield wrote:
formulated the question :
On 15 Jun, 22:15, Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.

The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

TIA

Adrian

Your supplier may install a recording voltmeter if you give them good
reason to.

I concur.

There are no cheap options I can think of, but if you have a battery
powered laptop, or even a desktop with a back up PSU - you could buy a
little gadget which measures the voltage to translate it to an input to
the PC. The PC then simply logs it.

I have a modern voltage logging digital voltmeter, but from memory that
cost around £200.


...or said laptop, and a UPS - many, my cheapo Belkin included, have
voltage monitors and software to allow plotting of incoming voltage over
time.

Unfortunately, any such 'monitoring' will at best only be an approximate
indication, unless you can be certain that the monitoring software has been
calibrated to a recognised laboratory standard.

Buy a cheapo DMM and you'll pay just a few pounds, but buy the same type of
DMM that has been calibrated against a laboratory standard and you'll pay
significantly more.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

In message , Adrian Simpson
writes
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

Summer is the time when planned maintenance is carried out. Reduced load
and better weather/more daylight.

You usual supply may have been temporarily re-routed to allow repairs.

Sometimes you can infer what is going on when short interruptions occur
*on the hour* or half hour as switching takes place.

Our 11kV overhead is due for refurbishment this Summer so I guess the
village of 6500 will be lumped in with the neighbouring town on a single
supply.

regards


TIA

Adrian

--
Tim Lamb

Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?


TIA

Adrian
Well look at the weather...

lightning strikes and floods..

Rest assured the supply company will be well aware of it, and the
outages are probably them trying to fix it.

Like as not there is an insulator that has arced over, and continues to
'fizzle'

Knowing how bad it is won't help get it fixed.

In article , Adrian Simpson
writes
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?


TIA

Adrian

Grumble at your local distribution co. If they are doing maintenance
they will know about that, and should be able to give you a completion
date.

If not you may well have a fault on your individual supply in which case
its their problem to sort. Are your neighbours having much the same
problems?..

--
Tony Sayer

In article ,
Harry Bloomfield writes:

There are no cheap options I can think of, but if you have a battery
powered laptop, or even a desktop with a back up PSU - you could buy a
little gadget which measures the voltage to translate it to an input to
the PC. The PC then simply logs it.

I have a modern voltage logging digital voltmeter, but from memory that
cost around £200.

CPC do a test meter with RS232 output and PC logging software for
something around £20 IIRC. (Unfortunately the RS232 data is
proprietry, and I haven't tried using the Windows software.)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

The Wanderer wrote:

Unfortunately, any such 'monitoring' will at best only be an approximate
indication, unless you can be certain that the monitoring software has been
calibrated to a recognised laboratory standard.

Buy a cheapo DMM and you'll pay just a few pounds, but buy the same type of
DMM that has been calibrated against a laboratory standard and you'll pay
significantly more.

Pedantic.

As it happens, a calibrated DMM would present, at best, an approximation
of the actual voltage. The approximation, in this case, would be within
the stated and certified accuracy of the calibration laboratory (hmmm, I
served 12 weeks of my induction working in a Cal. lab)

Anyway, the same argument can equally be applied to those nasty
uncertified meters that you can pick up for a few pounds (or, indeed,
several hundred pounds), or the UPS. For what it's worth, the UPS
reports a voltage +1.5vac above my nasty non-certified, non calibrated
Fluke. Or 0.625% overreading against said nasty meter.

Horses for courses, but I don't think that's outside of the scope of the
OP's post.

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:04:45 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

Our 11kV overhead is due for refurbishment this Summer so I guess the
village of 6500 will be lumped in with the neighbouring town on a single
supply.

"village of 6500" that's a medium town not a village FFS. In my book small
towns start at 500-1000 population.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

In message om, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:04:45 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

Our 11kV overhead is due for refurbishment this Summer so I guess the
village of 6500 will be lumped in with the neighbouring town on a single
supply.

"village of 6500" that's a medium town not a village FFS. In my book small
towns start at 500-1000 population.

Oh well.

We have our illusions:-)

Radius of 15 miles tots up to a million or so:-(

regards


--
Tim Lamb

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 22:31:00 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:

"village of 6500" that's a medium town not a village FFS. In my book
small towns start at 500-1000 population.

Oh well.

We have our illusions:-)

Radius of 15 miles tots up to a million or so:-(

Radius of 15 miles here might just make 5,000...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 22:31:00 +0100, Tim Lamb wrote:


"village of 6500" that's a medium town not a village FFS. In my book
small towns start at 500-1000 population.

Oh well.

We have our illusions:-)

Radius of 15 miles tots up to a million or so:-(


Radius of 15 miles here might just make 5,000...

Around my house - 15 miles wouldn't even make 500.

Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?


TIA

Adrian

Just found this - any use?

http://www.hackaday.com/2007/05/30/u...meter-monitor/

VH.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

Radius of 15 miles here might just make 5,000...

And a radius of 15 miles here wouldn't make anythign near 5,000. largest
and emptiest parish in England apparently.

On Jun 15, 5:15 pm, Adrian Simpson wrote:
Thepower supplyaround here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of thepower supply(keeping a record) ?

If line voltage is varying excessively, then dimming and brightening
of incandescent bulbs would be quite obvious. If voltage is too low
and not varying, then numbers from a 3.5 digit multimeter (£15) would
make it obvious or provide numbers to post here (so that replies can
be useful).

In article , Van Helsing
writes
Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?


TIA

Adrian

Just found this - any use?

http://www.hackaday.com/2007/05/30/u...meter-monitor/

VH.




Yes that monitors the "power" your using, not the volts supplied!....
--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer wrote:
In article , Van Helsing
writes
Adrian Simpson wrote:
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?


TIA

Adrian
Just found this - any use?

http://www.hackaday.com/2007/05/30/u...meter-monitor/

VH.




Yes that monitors the "power" your using, not the volts supplied!....
bangs head on desk...

yes, of course, silly me

VH.

In article , The Wanderer
writes

Thanks for the various replies across the thread.


On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:15:20 +0100, Adrian Simpson wrote:

I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far),

Three times in one day? Are you in a part of the UK that's been affected by
the recent very heavy rainfall? Are outages a common occurence?


In the end it was four times, it went off again after I posted :-(

The weather around here last Friday was not unusual, a bit of wind, but
not more than "moderate", some rain, but nothing approaching an
excessive amount. All in all, not the best of days weather wise, but
nothing even approaching excessive.

The schedule ran something like :

0510 (by cooker clock) power off (according to Central Networks it went
off at 0630)
0815 Power comes back on

0915 Power off, not for long (I went out, for 25 minutes and it was on
when I got back)

During the day it was on, but the kettle was slow to boil, and bulbs
were flashing and fluorescent tubes won't start.

1845 The power went off again for about 3 minutes.

2235 Off again for about 3 minutes.


During the day, the problem was supposedly an overhead HV fault at a
local sub station. The last one a problem at a different substation.
When I phoned in to find out what was happening I was told that the
fault would take 4 hours to fix.

That is on top of a 6 hr outage back in March and 16 hours last back
end, with others of shorter intervals.

If you are getting power outages on a regular basis, you should be taking
it up with your local distribution company, but you'll need to gather some
evidence, like a record of date and times over a period of at least a few
weeks, to back up your complaint.


Sort of. I've been here for 6 and a half years and I've had more
outages than at anytime since the three day week.

I do mention the outages to them at a regular basis, the reason I
started this thread was to see if there was a simple way I could
automate the monitoring.

I take it you have actually tried 'phoning them to ask if they've problems
in your area.......


I do, and they don't really seem interested. The first sub-station they
claimed to have problems with always seems to be the source of the
troubles.


Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

No. Data loggers cost money.


I had a nasty feeling that might be the case.



Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "news" with "adrian" and "nospam" with "ffoil"
Sorry for the rigmarole, If I want spam, I'll go to the shops
Every time someone says "I don't believe in trolls", another one dies.

I do, and they don't really seem interested. The first sub-station they
claimed to have problems with always seems to be the source of the
troubles.


Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

No. Data loggers cost money.


I had a nasty feeling that might be the case.


Stop faffing around with them. They sound almost as bad as EDF;-(

Any of your neighbours getting the same problem?. If yes, then get them
to ratchet up the vitriol to central Notworks,. If just yourself put in
a !written! complaint about your supply, and demand them to put in a
recording device otherwise your going to take it further ..


Like complain to the regulator, media, set your mother in law on
them...no ! thats prolly a bit harsh but you get the idea I hope;!....

--
Tony Sayer

In article , tony sayer
writes
I do, and they don't really seem interested. The first sub-station they
claimed to have problems with always seems to be the source of the
troubles.


Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

No. Data loggers cost money.


I had a nasty feeling that might be the case.


Any of your neighbours getting the same problem?. If yes, then get them
to ratchet up the vitriol to central Notworks,. If just yourself put in
a !written! complaint about your supply, and demand them to put in a
recording device otherwise your going to take it further ..


The whole street (about 30 houses) has the problem. The area in general
seems to suffer, but I think to a lesser extent (when our power is off
on a night, the houses that back onto us usually have their lights on).

Whilst it is almost always flagged up as being the same substation that
has the fault, I'm not sure that I go along with this, if that were the
case then the number of people off would be in the thousands, not the
reported tens. If this substation really is the problem, then you would
think by now they would have got fed up with fixing it and be doing
something about it.



Like complain to the regulator, media, set your mother in law on
them...no ! thats prolly a bit harsh but you get the idea I hope;!....


Given the high journalistic standards of our local rag, it will probably
be reported as a burst water main. The regulator may be a next step,
MiL, you have an evil mind (I like it), however since that post is
currently vacant, I can't go down that route.


Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "news" with "adrian" and "nospam" with "ffoil"
Sorry for the rigmarole, If I want spam, I'll go to the shops
Every time someone says "I don't believe in trolls", another one dies.

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:15:19 +0100, Adrian Simpson wrote:

In article , tony sayer
writes
I do, and they don't really seem interested. The first sub-station they
claimed to have problems with always seems to be the source of the
troubles.


Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

No. Data loggers cost money.


I had a nasty feeling that might be the case.


Any of your neighbours getting the same problem?. If yes, then get them
to ratchet up the vitriol to central Notworks,. If just yourself put in
a !written! complaint about your supply, and demand them to put in a
recording device otherwise your going to take it further ..


The whole street (about 30 houses) has the problem. The area in general
seems to suffer, but I think to a lesser extent (when our power is off
on a night, the houses that back onto us usually have their lights on).

Whilst it is almost always flagged up as being the same substation that
has the fault, I'm not sure that I go along with this, if that were the
case then the number of people off would be in the thousands, not the
reported tens. If this substation really is the problem, then you would
think by now they would have got fed up with fixing it and be doing
something about it.



Like complain to the regulator, media, set your mother in law on
them...no ! thats prolly a bit harsh but you get the idea I hope;!....


Given the high journalistic standards of our local rag, it will probably
be reported as a burst water main. The regulator may be a next step,

Nah, first move is to write - yes get it in writing - to Central Networks,
asking in vire of the local history of outages in your area, which you have
repeatedly contacted them about, what are thy proposing to do to improve
the security of supply in line with the ESQCR [1]

[1] Link here to the regulation

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20022665.htm

and whilst you're at it, you might like to look up statutory instrument
2006:1521 which further ties down the distributors about security of
supply.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

In article , Adrian Simpson
writes
In article , tony sayer
writes
I do, and they don't really seem interested. The first sub-station they
claimed to have problems with always seems to be the source of the
troubles.


Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?

No. Data loggers cost money.


I had a nasty feeling that might be the case.


Any of your neighbours getting the same problem?. If yes, then get them
to ratchet up the vitriol to central Notworks,. If just yourself put in
a !written! complaint about your supply, and demand them to put in a
recording device otherwise your going to take it further ..


The whole street (about 30 houses) has the problem. The area in general
seems to suffer, but I think to a lesser extent (when our power is off
on a night, the houses that back onto us usually have their lights on).

Whilst it is almost always flagged up as being the same substation that
has the fault, I'm not sure that I go along with this, if that were the
case then the number of people off would be in the thousands, not the
reported tens. If this substation really is the problem, then you would
think by now they would have got fed up with fixing it and be doing
something about it.

It could affect either a few or many it depends on the transformer
capacity and other factors. But the amount of time its been going on I
think that power company should be doing something more about it by now
or at least keeping you better informed.

I should agitate with your neighbours re the problem.

Remember that The squeakiest hinge gets the most Oil;!....



Like complain to the regulator, media, set your mother in law on
them...no ! thats prolly a bit harsh but you get the idea I hope;!....


Given the high journalistic standards of our local rag, it will probably
be reported as a burst water main. The regulator may be a next step,
MiL, you have an evil mind (I like it), however since that post is
currently vacant,

Lucky U....


Adrian

--
Tony Sayer

In article , Adrian Simpson
writes
I suspect that I shall be disappointed, but here goes.


The power supply around here is not the most reliable in the world.
Today it has gone off three times (off for ~3 hours so far), and I
suspect that the voltage is down (fluorescent won't fire up, normal
bulbs are flickering). Is there a cheap way of monitoring the quality
of the power supply (keeping a record) ?




As a follow up to this, I wrote to Central Networks, who, to their
credit, attempted to contact me straight away. Here endeth the good
news. According to their records, the recent outages have all been due
to different problems, rather than one persistent source of trouble, so
since they seem to have a number of "one offs", they don't see it as a
problem. It seems that I'm a lucky person, only having three significant
problems in the last 7 months, some are well into double figures. I
think I shall have to start keeping some more detailed records.


Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "news" with "adrian" and "nospam" with "ffoil"
Sorry for the rigmarole, If I want spam, I'll go to the shops
Every time someone says "I don't believe in trolls", another one dies.