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mains voltage
I live in a remote area where the mains voltage fluctuates all the time; the nominal voltage is 230 but can go as low as 150 and as high as 260. Does anybody know whether the XPS 420 is or can be supplied with a psu that will cope with this situation? Preferably of a higher wattage than is normally supplied. I also do not know whether an auto switching psu maintains continuous low voltage supplies whilst it is switching.
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Posted July 22nd, 2008 13:00
Thankyou for that Fireberd. I have done a bit more reading and UPSs seem to cope with less voltage variation than auto switching PSUs, but since I suffer numerous power failures as well as brownouts then perhaps this is the best solution. Since my PC is often unattended I will need a UPS able to switch it off before the backup power runs out. Further observations from anybody very welcome.150
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Posted July 22nd, 2008 16:00
You may also want to consider a voltage regulator (or a line conditioner) that will even out the lows and highs and provide more uniform voltage to protect against brownouts, surges, and over-voltages. Be sure to find one that covers the range of highs and lows you think you have.
Don't know if this is for personal or business use, but these things can range in price from ~US$50 to many thousands US$.
Ron
Message Edited by RoHe on 07-22-2008 11:00 AM
150
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Posted July 22nd, 2008 17:00
260 is on the high side, but probably within limits, barely. My stars, what country do you live in? That degree of variation is unacceptable. Your utility is seriously not doing its job.
No supply is designed to run on 150. It's too high for the low range and too low for the high range. Autoswitch won't help. UPS won't keep it running either, except long enough to shut it down in an orderly fashion. If I had that degree of power variation, I would not leave home with ANYthing turned on. I'd even be nervous about the refrigerator. At 150, a 230V refrigerator motor will stall and overheat itself.
There are very expensive auto-adjusting tapped autotransformers that can cope with that range, but that is industrial equipment, not priced for home use. Have you no recourse with the utility? I mean, providing power you can't use is not exactly providing power at all. I bet it's very expensive, to boot.
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Posted July 22nd, 2008 20:00
Although PSUs can be marked as supporting voltages to include the USA and European levels the assumption is with the designers that they will be working at one or the other and not fluctuating between them on a random basis as the inputs will have different ways of handling the different supply levels..
The best solution is to go for a UPS of such a capacity to allow your system to run throughout the brownouts. The only problem may be when it kicks in it will alarm so one you can silence would be useful.
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Posted July 22nd, 2008 22:00
Except a UPS won't protect against an over-voltage.
Ron
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Posted July 23rd, 2008 15:00
UPSs do protect against overvoltage as well as undervoltage, check the specifications of the line interactive devices.
This is a good simple explanation
fireberd
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150
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Posted July 22nd, 2008 09:00
If you are having that much voltage variation, you should seriously consider using a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Source) between the mains and the PC. A power supply usually can handle plus or minus 20% from the "normal" but none can handle the drop to 150V.
A higher wattage power supply only means that it can supply higher DC current, it has nothing to do with the mains AC Voltage.