Not enough electricity in my house? Help Me!

[ku]

Hi. I moved about a month ago and it turns out that whenever there is an air conditioner or washing machine on, the lights go dim in my house and the top left of my screen starts shaking. Also, when the lights dim, my computer seems to hang for a second too. Now I don't know if I can do anything with the house (haven't asked the landlord yet) but if I can't, is there anything else that I could do?... such as buying backup power supply thingies (UPS) or an amplifier of some kind? I have no experience with any of these so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jacktesterson]

I recommend you call your power company

 

[AluminumStudios]

It sounds like the place is wired with too much draw on a single circuit. I'm not sure if that would be the responsiblity of the building or the power company though.

Have you tried a different outlet (like running an extension cord to a different room?), or is this problem all over the house?

A decent UPS battery might help by smoothign out the power, but one that did a decent job conditioning the power would be a little more expensive than the cheapest ones you can pick up at the local Best Buy.

I would suggest doing something though, power issues like that can cause the premature death of your power supply and that could even spill over into possibly hurting your motherboard.

 

[ku]

Yeah, I really don't know what to do. And yes, this problem sustains throughout the whole house. I think I will have to call the power company. But can anyone confirm if a UPS will help or not? <3!

 

[Matthias99]

I agree with AlStudios -- A UPS with built-in line conditioning will help (but is generally expensive). One without line conditioning might, depending on how good it is and if and/or how aggressively it reacts to voltage sags and spikes. Even a cheap UPS would likely bring some improvement, though.

 

[ku]

Any suggestions on specific models? Price isn't really a factor... since it is for the sake of over a grand of equipment =P... and hell, having a UPS won't hurt.

 

[dkozloski]

If the lights dim all over the house in response to load changes, you are living in a fire trap. Move out instantly! There is serious trouble with the electrical system. At the very least call an electrician to have a look at it.

 

[Matt155]

You know go to your main breaker box and check what the main breaker are rated for. Most houses should have 2 100 amp breakers. Get Cyberpower AVR 900, i have it and it works really well and its under 100 bucks.

 

[sharkeeper]

Get a ferroresonant UPS which can provide 100% fulltime buck/boost with 125dB transverse rejection and galvanic isolation.

Lesser units will transfer to battery when voltage sags below 95VAC and this doesn't do any good unless you don't mind your computer shutting down in five minutes after a brown out!

Your load center is probably over utilised. The line voltage could be low if everyone is running their CAC and a pole pig is overloaded to begin with.

Cheers!

 

[Mike2002]

Is it really that big of a problem if the lights dim just a little bit when the air conditioner turns on in your house because it always happens in my house. It'll happen when the air conditioner or anohter big load item such as a hair dryer. It just seems like this always happens and I don't think it is really a problem since it happens all the time. It is not bad at all really just a little change in the intensity of the light at the AC's start up and then the lights go right back to normal.

 

[ku]

Well, it's not really the lights dimming then it is the lights flicker (almost off then back on). Also, I'm worried about my monitor and PSU as well

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: ku
Well, it's not really the lights dimming then it is the lights flicker (almost off then back on). Also, I'm worried about my monitor and PSU as well

That's definately not good. The last place that I was living, was kind of like that. Every time that someone used the microwave in the kitchen, the lights would dim slightly, and I could hear my UPS switch over to battery power for a short while.

If your lights flicker to the point of going out, then you have some even-more far serious problems with your power there.

The short-term solution is to get some sort of UPS to protect your valuable computer and electronic equipment. Given your known power issues, a line-conditioning UPS as others have suggested would be the best. APC makes a line of models called "SmartUPS" that do line-conditioning as well, but they are also definately more expensive than the run-of-the-mill variety.

The long term solution - well, I hope you get it worked out, but I would imagine that it will involve talking with the landlord, the power company, and an electrician at some point. Something just isn't right there.

(Might want to inquire if the building was wired with aluminum rather than copper wiring. If so, then you might have a risk of fire at some point. Make sure to get that checked out!)

 

[jt63]

Sam's Club has the APC Back-UPS Pro 1100 for about $125. I've seen it elsewhere for $400. Good, strong line conditioning UPS

 

[GrJohnso]

For a few less bucks you can just try a line leveler type surge supressor. The apt I recently moved into had similar problems as you. My crt monitor had major wiggles and the power was just plain dirty... Picked up a APC Line-R 600VA (LE600) Surge Suppressor for about $45 shipped and all my worries went away. They have beefier ones, but I just needed something for my cpu and monitor.. Wasn't stressing about the rest.

What'ev you do, do something. Bad power can eat things up pretty quick...

Product Link for APC Line-R conditioner

 

[Big Lar]

You can use a ups with AVR, but that will only help for awhile. The problem, it would appear, is momentary brownout, which is caused by either of 2 things. 1= too much load on said breaker for said room,(maybe), 2= Power feeds from Comm ed, or whoever, is too small, ie; 60 amp line in,(#6 wire legs), for a 100 amp box,etc. Any house with flickering lights is a death trap per say, and should have a qualified electrician out to check it. Yes, I do electrical work.
Good Luck.

 

[White Widow]

Call an electrician now. First, you will get a straight answer about what the problem is and what short-term/long-term risks you face. Second, and just as important, you should ask the electrician for official, professional documentation of the problem. If you have this, you can go to the landlord and demand a fix (depending on the problem) and you also will know exactly what to tell the power company if it turns out you need to invlive them. This is not something to put off, unless the prospec of living out your days as a helplessly blind and burned shell of a human being appeals to you.

A good UPS may save your computer, but if I were you, I'd be more concerned about myself!

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Big Lar
You can use a ups with AVR, but that will only help for awhile. The problem, it would appear, is momentary brownout, which is caused by either of 2 things. 1= too much load on said breaker for said room,(maybe), 2= Power feeds from Comm ed, or whoever, is too small, ie; 60 amp line in,(#6 wire legs), for a 100 amp box,etc. Any house with flickering lights is a death trap per say, and should have a qualified electrician out to check it. Yes, I do electrical work.
Good Luck.

How the heck is that a death trap? If there was to much load on a breaker then it would keep on breaking the circuit. The problem is that he is to far away from the transforer and has to small of wire running to the houses.

 

[ku]

Well, I'll be off to college in about 2 months so I don't know about doing this to my whole house (especially if it will cost alot of will take a lot of time, etc.). I think I'll look into that Line-R thing... seems just like the thing I need... and maybe even if I could get my parents to drop a little more money, I'll just get a good UPS... thanks guys

edit: as for the Line-R series, I'm asumming I should get the 1200VA? It's only like 10 bucks more...

EDIT#2: I've decided on what to do: I'm going to buy a voltage regulator... either the ones that come with the UPS or stand-alone ones. I'll probably end up buying the UPS though, it's a little under $100 but I figure that's better than risking my $80 powersupply + other components =P. thanks everyone

 

[Big Lar]

Quote;
How the heck is that a death trap? If there was to much load on a breaker then it would keep on breaking the circuit. The problem is that he is to far away from the transforer and has to small of wire running to the houses

Reason being,Lets say a vaccum is running, it dosn't get enuff juice as the brownout starts, say this vaccum is on a circuit with a 20 amp breaker, cord for said vaccum gets hot, will a vaccum cleaner trip a 20 amp circuit? No. Fire starts. Would you Insure that its ok for that? Nope. Any other questions?

 

[ku]

btw
would this be sufficient?http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productreview.asp?submit=search&amp;item=42-102-005

 

[NokiaDude]

CyberPower UPS'es are STRONG UPS'es. I had a small 500VA running a computer, TV AND home theater system for 20 minutes one time!!

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Big Lar
Quote;
How the heck is that a death trap? If there was to much load on a breaker then it would keep on breaking the circuit. The problem is that he is to far away from the transforer and has to small of wire running to the houses

Reason being,Lets say a vaccum is running, it dosn't get enuff juice as the brownout starts, say this vaccum is on a circuit with a 20 amp breaker, cord for said vaccum gets hot, will a vaccum cleaner trip a 20 amp circuit? No. Fire starts. Would you Insure that its ok for that? Nope. Any other questions?

How is the cord going to get hot when it isn't getting enough juice? less current means that there will be less heat generated by every wire in the building.

 

[Big Lar]

Really? OK, Central A/C lets give a 2 1/2 ton that normally uses lets say 17 amp, only 13 amps for about 5 minutes. Are you saying that unit WILL NOT run hotter? How hot do you think the compressor will get?

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Big Lar
Really? OK, Central A/C lets give a 2 1/2 ton that normally uses lets say 17 amp, only 13 amps for about 5 minutes. Are you saying that unit WILL NOT run hotter? How hot do you think the compressor will get?

Yeah because half a second is the same as 5 minutes. Not that the I think the poster has a 2 and 1/2 ton central A/C unit, I don't think the poster would have a problem running the unit with the type of brown outs he is excperencing. The fan would have enough enirtial energy to keep cooling until power came back on line and because the fan came back to full speed. Electric motor has a high indutence compared with say a light buld, so the effect will be less then the effect seen in the lights.

 

[mitchafi]

I have brownouts in my house also. Whenever the air goes on the lights dim for a split second. I'm going to buy an APC 500 Watt UPS...will this help? I don't have that much money to spend so I hope it will do.