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Too much voltage 246v from power company
Originally Posted by
hvacker
If a compressor fails and the cause isn't found a repeat failure is likely.
Failures are almost always external to the compressor. If possible open the compressor
because often the evidence will be there. I've even opened hermetics at times.
One of the best classes I've gone to was Carrier's tear down school analyze failures.
A voltage problem will be obvious.
I just don't think 246 is enough to kill them. That's what everything is running on here at the club. And that's still 9 Amps lower than the power around here usually is.
Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.
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One thing that voltage will kill, is a 208 volt water heater element.
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Originally Posted by
madhat
One thing that voltage will kill, is a 208 volt water heater element.
Years ago I had a bunch of element problems. About one every six months. Then I tried one that was curvy. I don't remember the name but it worked on a watt density idea where the same output was put in a longer element by putting a bunch of bends in it.
It was the last one I had to change. It also ran cooler per inch and did not get calcium build up like a regular element would.
We are here on Earth to fart around ......Kurt Vonnegut
You can be anything you want......As long as you don't suck at it.
USAF 98 Bomb Wing 1960-66 SMW Lu49
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Most of the computer components use low voltage dc power. Not sure what non sine supply will do to a transformer.
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voltage fluctuations are normal as it depends on over all load. Power companies also has some "voltage regulators " with tolerance of 5%(in your case)
Think about installing an industrial grade voltage regulator, hope it may protect your device
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Originally Posted by
AmadeusMozart
Nominal voltage in New Zealand is 230V but I have had problems with it going over 254V and equipment failing. The biggest problem however is that the voltage is no longer purely sinusodial due to the switched power supplies to computers, LED and halogen lights, washing machines using DC motors etc etc. If you put an osciloscope then you might well see that the voltage spikes are far higher than that your 246V indicates especially if your voltmeter is not a pure RMS meter. I suspect that it might have to do with insualtion breakdown of the windings. The earlier failing is the same as when you control the speed of a motor with a cheap speed controller, motors will hum and fail earlier.
For computer equipment I use a UPS that first transforms the power and then generates a pure sinusoidial voltage. There are cheaper solutions that stabilise the voltage and transform it in a pure sinus without having a UPS built in. Unfortunately those are not much use if you have trouble with bad brown outs where the mains falls away to very low voltages where a UPS may be required instead. (I recently looked into those because my daughter has trouble with "brown outs" too low voltage when all the hot water cylinders are turned on through ripple control. The computer controlled radio and washing machine were going silly).
Goodman rates their condensers at 253 maximum voltage. I call the power company if it is above that, and they fix it some how. The indoor outlets at one place were at 130 volts and it was causing electronic music equipment to fail at an astonishing rate. As soon as they fixed it not another piece of equipment failed. 120 volt to neutral power actually peaks at 165 volts if you look at it on a scope, 120 volts is the root mean square of 165 volts to neutral. So when it is at 130 volts you are getting very high voltage into the electronics about 175 volts.
Because of ohms law the crankcase heating elements can blow from a small increase in voltage which causes an increase in amperage and huge increase in wattage.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
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Originally Posted by
AmadeusMozart
Nominal voltage in New Zealand is 230V but I have had problems with it going over 254V and equipment failing. The biggest problem however is that the voltage is no longer purely sinusodial due to the switched power supplies to computers, LED and halogen lights, washing machines using DC motors etc etc. If you put an osciloscope then you might well see that the voltage spikes are far higher than that your 246V indicates especially if your voltmeter is not a pure RMS meter. I suspect that it might have to do with insualtion breakdown of the windings. The earlier failing is the same as when you control the speed of a motor with a cheap speed controller, motors will hum and fail earlier.
For computer equipment I use a UPS that first transforms the power and then generates a pure sinusoidial voltage. There are cheaper solutions that stabilise the voltage and transform it in a pure sinus without having a UPS built in. Unfortunately those are not much use if you have trouble with bad brown outs where the mains falls away to very low voltages where a UPS may be required instead. (I recently looked into those because my daughter has trouble with "brown outs" too low voltage when all the hot water cylinders are turned on through ripple control. The computer controlled radio and washing machine were going silly).
120 volt power on a scope is actually 165 volts at the peak of the wave. 120 is the Root Mean Square of a 165 volt sign wave. What might be happening is that you lost your crankcase heaters due to high voltage and then the condenser did the dance a few times and ended the compressor. Are these compressors heat pumps or operating at low ambient?
Sincerely,
William McCormick
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You may want to dig into ground/neutral issues. Years ago I had a customer complaining about lights dimming when the HP started. After a bunch of digging I found voltage from ground wire to earth ground. Got the power company involved, it took them a bit to get what the issue was but after I showed them they said "some ting wong" They found a bad ground at the ground rod for the transformer on the post, affected the neutral and put voltage on the ground circuit.
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I dot think that your issue is the power, seems like the power is correct. I wonder if the power is dropping to low when your not around and causing the compressors to fail. Are you installing a OEM Compressor, if not try an OEM Compressor and install a hard start kit on the compressor. I'm assuming we are talking about single phase, right? I once installed 3 compressors from one supplier and all three compressors failed within 30 minutes of running them. I then purchased the 4th compressor from a different supplier and it has been running for over 5 years now. This was for a commercial kitchen.
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