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Is 250V in power sockets ok?
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1
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Posted
12/5/2006
Hi all,
I moved to a new place 6 months ago. I find myself changing lightbulbs at an unusual pace (for some already 2 times) and had already 2 issues with appliances that do not power on anymore. I have tested the power in the sockets and found it to be 250V. Most appliances specify a 220-240V range for power input.
- Is 250V still ok for these appliances? Am I just reducing their lifespan or are there other risks?
- Is 250V usual in Australia? Should I get an electrician to do something about it, like reduce it to ~220V? can it be done anyway?
Thanks a lot for your answers.
Laurent.
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Yang-Lit
63
Posts |
Posted
26/5/2006
I'm not qualified to suggest what you can do directly, but I think it is safe to say that if you are concered with your house's power supply, you should contact a licenced electrican to check your house's power supply.
Excessive heat in household wiring can result in premature breakdown in wiring insulation resulting in fire. As you mention, it can also damage applicances/devices and will often technically viod their warranty as they are operated outside thir stated operating range.
What multimeter are you using - a true RMS DMM gives my 239.7V at my house (I personally didn't think that it would be that close to 240V but anyhow...). A DMM without true RMS will not show this value.
ylp88
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Jay Cee
339
Posts |
Posted
27/5/2006
The standard voltage here in oz is rated at 240v, however this can be 10% either way from that, so to find 250v on an outlet is normal, infact you are lucky in some ways, as parts of oz don't even get 240 they are lucky to get 220, so in saying this, a lot of the cheaper brand appliances are rated at 220 and most come from china and the likes, there is not much you can do about having 250 on your outlets, there is nothing that an electrician can do, other than suggest to you, as i am, by contacting you supplier and asking them for any help they can offer, thats about all you can do at this stage.
Jay Cee
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4
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Posted
4/7/2006
Energy Australia state in their Electricity Network Operation Standard June 06 that their objective is to maintain the voltage between 226V to 254V (ie +/-6%) for 95% of the time. The upper limits (for the other 5% of the time) are 216V to 264V (ie +/-10%). At 252V you are within their specifications.
As Jay Cee has stated there is very little that an electrician can do. The higher voltage shouldn't present a safety problem since it is still well within the voltage rating for standard cabling. Burning out of cabling should also not be an issue since circuit breakers or fuses installed in the switchboard to protect the cables from excessively high current. For the vast majority of appliances the higher voltage shouldn't cause a problem.
For specific appliances with very tight voltage tolerances it would be possible to use an autotransformer to reduce the voltage.
I have to disagree with Yang-Lit re. true RMS meters. A standard meter is supposed to read correctly on a 50Hz sine wave (which is hopefully close to what is being supplied). True RMS is only required for non-sinusoidal voltages or frequencies higher than 50/60Hz. I would be extremely concerned about the quality of the supplied power if a true RMS meter gave a significantly different reading to a standard meter.
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37
Posts |
Posted
25/9/2006
Here in W.A. we had 250v ac nominal as standard- then may,be 20 or so years ago the supply was reduced to 240v ac nominal to match the rest of Australia. While at 250v, we found that by using 260v rated light bulbs, their life was significantly increased over 240v bulbs. At one house I investigated, the voltage was 280v ac, & was taking out mains powered appliances regularly. The electricity supplier was contacted, & changed taps on the supply stepdown transformer to a more standard level, thus negating the problem.
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