3 ms·

Did you catch the "Belgium" in my comment? Here in the EU, the grid voltage is targeting 230 volt (± 10%). (Either between the two phases in a two phase system,

Did you catch the "Belgium" in my comment? Here in the EU, the grid voltage is targeting 230 volt (± 10%). (Either between the two phases in a two phase system, or between phase and neutral in 3 phase systems.) This is specified by the EN 50160 standard: https://www.se.com/ww/library/SCHNEIDER_ELECTRIC/SE_LOCAL/APS/204836_1312/DraftStandard0026rev2-DraftEN501602005-05.pdf https://www.se.com/ww/library/SCHNEIDER_ELECTRIC/SE_LOCAL/AP... The range you specified sounds like the US tolerances.

jacquesm 3y ago
Fair enough, but I've never seen it drop below 228 and I've never seen it go above 253 and 240 is the rough midpoint between the two. I suspect this was to accomodate the UK which did have nominal 240V so that all of Europe could be 'one standard' without the requirement for gear to have many different voltage selections. So now the only time you see 230 is when the sun isn't shining the rest of the day you're much closer to 240. Incidentally: this is also why a bunch of older appliances are at risk of burning out. If they were marginal when we were still nominally 220V then 230V was already pushing it and 253 V (still within EU tolerance, 230 x 1.1 is 253!) will definitely cause damage. Newer gear is more forgiving about this. Hence the spike in business at white goods stores during days with lots of sunshine... Older appliances typically had a whole raft of supply voltages to choose from 100, 110, 115, 120, 200, 220, 240 and sometimes even 127 and 245 and I'm pretty sure I've seen even weirder ones (150, 185 iirc). Now it's just 120 or 240 for regular consumer gear. BTW, brownouts are more of a risk than overvoltage, with brownouts a powersupply that autoranges might accidentally pick the lower voltage and then when the brownout ends magic smoke comes out.

3 ms·

Did you catch the "Belgium" in my comment? Here in the EU, the grid voltage is targeting 230 volt (± 10%). (Either between the two phases in a two phase system,

by wcoenen 3y ago

jacquesm 3y ago
Fair enough, but I've never seen it drop below 228 and I've never seen it go above 253 and 240 is the rough midpoint between the two. I suspect this was to accomodate the UK which did have nominal 240V so that all of Europe could be 'one standard' without the requirement for gear to have many different voltage selections. So now the only time you see 230 is when the sun isn't shining the rest of the day you're much closer to 240. Incidentally: this is also why a bunch of older appliances are at risk of burning out. If they were marginal when we were still nominally 220V then 230V was already pushing it and 253 V (still within EU tolerance, 230 x 1.1 is 253!) will definitely cause damage. Newer gear is more forgiving about this. Hence the spike in business at white goods stores during days with lots of sunshine... Older appliances typically had a whole raft of supply voltages to choose from 100, 110, 115, 120, 200, 220, 240 and sometimes even 127 and 245 and I'm pretty sure I've seen even weirder ones (150, 185 iirc). Now it's just 120 or 240 for regular consumer gear. BTW, brownouts are more of a risk than overvoltage, with brownouts a powersupply that autoranges might accidentally pick the lower voltage and then when the brownout ends magic smoke comes out.