meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 Speaker - Yes, I have fuses (not glass though). The little round screw in things.... Some parts of the box have fuse looking cylinder things in plastic pull out panel dealies. Fuses I guess? They're about 2" long by 1/2" diameter. The wireing is NOT cloth. The house is 49 years old. 1958. Who - your voltage is high at 125. I am close to you. Must be a Com-Ed thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 A poll like this will tell you very little useful information. Use different meters measuring AC and you will get different voltage readings. For example both of these meters are plugged into the exact same power strip. Shawn Oh god thanks for posting that......... Ditto!!! Shawn makes an excellent point! And I can certainly understand just how Craig is glad to hear about it! [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 232!!! What do I win? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 A bag of fuses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Well, the last time I checked my voltage swings from a low of about 112 to a high of about 118. W. Befroe I put in a new 200 amp service and BEGGED Edison to put a new pot on the pole in the alley behind my house, my voltage would swing from as low as 104 to a high of 117. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Boy has this place become boring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 Allan - is this a California thing or area issue? I wonder how it works cuz Dr. Who has 125 which is highish and he's close to me. Does it depend on the Electric company used? I hired a handyman to deal with my gutter issues. I asked him if he did electrical about a week ago. IDK He charges $75/hour. I've no clue what would be involved in installing a breaker (or whatever)... IDK what's involved with putting something on a separate circuit or how many watts to go for, etc.... I guess I'd have to assess the wattage of all my gear first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 And - I believe with 'me', the electric was ramped up in the last week or 2. Do the companies give houses more oomph depending on the season? At least they must do something pre-emptive in early summer allow us to deal with A/C? I would think there's some gadget an electric company can provide to regulate the power to certain houses on the pole or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 And - I believe with 'me', the electric was ramped up in the last week or 2. Do the companies give houses more oomph depending on the season? At least they must do something pre-emptive in early summer allow us to deal with A/C? I would think there's some gadget an electric company can provide to regulate the power to certain houses on the pole or something. Any compensation they run is going to respond in real time. I would wager that your power factor has gone up resulting in a change of measured voltage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 You might want to get an estimate to see what it would cost to have new 100 amp service installed, and have a separate circuit set up for your gear. Your house is getting up in years, and there are some safety issues involved. On the voltage front, it's not the average voltage at the receptacles so much as it is sags and spikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Do you know what the size is of your exisiting service? I don't have A/C and STILL I need 200 amps--the pair of ovens we put in a few years ago need one 20A circuit for EACH oven! You can chew through 200 amps in a heartbeat with modern appliances! I have two 15A circuits for my hi-fi--one powers the amps the the other the rest of the gear. I didn't NEED two circuits, but I had the room and said "what the hell!" Replacing your fusebox with circuit breakers won't really do anything for you--other than being more reliable and safer! Do you still have ungrounded plugs in your house? You might have 3-prong outlets, but that doesn't mean anything! You really should consider a new service, a new curcuit breaker box and new wiring as needed. You could run new wiring to your A/V gear only from the new service and not bother with the rest of the house--I have original 1927 wiring throughout the entire second floor of my home with the exception of the circuit that powers my treadmill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 You might want to get an estimate to see what it would cost to have new 100 amp service installed, and have a separate circuit set up for your gear. Your house is getting up in years, and there are some safety issues involved. On the voltage front, it's not the average voltage at the receptacles so much as it is sags and spikes. And can these sags/spikes be occurring despite what my meter reads? Cuz I've sure tested these things like crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Your meter is showing you an average of what is going on. Not what is going on at any one instant. A spike is a very quick thing that happens at a very high frequency (very very short wavelength, not meaning happens often) compared to 60hz AC. You will not see a spike on a multimeter. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 Do you know what the size is of your exisiting service? I don't have A/C and STILL I need 200 amps--the pair of ovens we put in a few years ago need one 20A circuit for EACH oven! You can chew through 200 amps in a heartbeat with modern appliances! I have two 15A circuits for my hi-fi--one powers the amps the the other the rest of the gear. I didn't NEED two circuits, but I had the room and said "what the hell!" Replacing your fusebox with circuit breakers won't really do anything for you--other than being more reliable and safer! Do you still have ungrounded plugs in your house? You might have 3-prong outlets, but that doesn't mean anything! You really should consider a new service, a new curcuit breaker box and new wiring as needed. You could run new wiring to your A/V gear only from the new service and not bother with the rest of the house--I have original 1927 wiring throughout the entire second floor of my home with the exception of the circuit that powers my treadmill. Allan - I think we have 100 amp (or 120 or whatever is the common one). The A/C & maybe the furnace? are on their own box (breaker type). The outlets are a mix of 2 & 3 prong. I have no idea if grounded or not. IF I added a separate circuit? for the stereo wall, I question if they have enough oomph to work with to add it. IDK. We inquired about getting 200 amp service but this idea fizzled out for various reasons that I can't recall. Probably has to do with the fact that we plan on tearing down/rebuilding this particular section of the house and various other remodels. The stupid electric from the pole enters thru a CLOSED UP crawlspace so the remodel will 90% likely entail moving the service elsewhere to put in a proper foundation? So there's many reasons why I'm hesitant to do anything electrical cuz it'll probably have to be torn out. IF I can find that I can add a circuit to do this audio wall for not alot of financial pain - fine. But I think there's nothing left to tap from? Allan - May I ask what was involved in going from 100 to 200? I remember when this was discussed with an electrician a few years ago, the costs discussed were insane and several thousand dollars. Do they have to run a 2" thick pipe from the pole to the house to do this or something? I'm depressing myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 Your meter is showing you an average of what is going on. Not what is going on at any one instant. A spike is a very quick thing that happens at a very high frequency (very very short wavelength, not meaning happens often) compared to 60hz AC. You will not see a spike on a multimeter. Shawn Sfogg - Let me get this straight.. If I have a meter in an outlet watching the reading...... You are saying there could be spikes that are undetected to my eyes when stareing at the meter? If so, OK, but would that type of spike be so critical and damaging? In surfing, I really don't even see this being discussed much. I find it hard to understand why others don't seem to have issues with this with their tube gear cuz I bet a huge chunk of them haven't tested their voltage or even have much of a clue about it. IDK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Do you still have ungrounded plugs in your house? You might have 3-prong outlets, but that doesn't mean anything!It sure doesn't. I used a circuit tester on all the outlets when I moved into my mid-1930's house, and found many unconnected grounds (the 3rd plug/pin) and even one outlet where hot and neutral were reversed! It was a lot of work to fully connect the ground circuit in all those outlets, because I had to trace and connect grounding runs through other outlets and ceiling fixtures to extend them to ground-dead outlets across the room. I also had many non-polarized 2-prong outlets, nearly all of which have been replaced. I worked up a circuit diagram, telling me EXACTLY which circuit each switch and outlet was on, to know which one if I need to kill it, and see what all is on each one -- very worthwhile. The captions you see written on many panel boxes, like "BR lights," are almost worthless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Allan - is this a California thing or area issue? I wonder how it works cuz Dr. Who has 125 which is highish and he's close to me. Does it depend on the Electric company used? I hired a handyman to deal with my gutter issues. I asked him if he did electrical about a week ago. IDK He charges $75/hour. I've no clue what would be involved in installing a breaker (or whatever)... IDK what's involved with putting something on a separate circuit or how many watts to go for, etc.... I guess I'd have to assess the wattage of all my gear first. I have 2 electicians I can reach in case one is busy. One is a manufacturing engineer at Ford who has a BSEE and the other has a Master Electricians license. Asking a handyman about electrical is like asking a podiatrist about heart surgery. Not recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 "Let me get this straight.. " Please do...... "If I have a meter in an outlet watching the reading...... You are saying there could be spikes that are undetected to my eyes when stareing at the meter? " Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A spike by its very nature lasts for a brief instant. Your meter probably reads the voltage a couple of times a second. A spike will easily occur and then be gone before your meter even has a chance to read it. And it is entirelly possible your meter doesn't have the FR to actually even measure the spike at all. You have one meter looking at one limited thing. More can be going on then that one thing...... "If so, OK, but would that type of spike be so critical and damaging? " What is it was 1000v? Or 5,000v? "In surfing, I really don't even see this being discussed much." ?????? You can only find tens of thousand of different products out there to protect against voltage spikes. I doubt voltage spikes are your problem though. Typically when equipment gets damaged by a big spike it happens when the spike hits it. There can be cumulative damage from spikes as well though. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 If these spikes are so bad, why was I advised to plug them right into the wall? Surely others have these spikes as well. I have surge protectors that I'd hope help with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 "I'm depressing myself " I bet your husband loves this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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