Is 260-262V mains voltage safe for modern electronics?

Just as per subject heading...

Trying to ascertain whether a friend's mains voltage is the reason they have lost a few electrical items lately - mainly amplifiers and computer PSUs. Their mains voltage is as in the subject heading... TIA for any advice.

Reply to
Jeßus
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It's within limits for some Australian states, just. It doesn't seem probable that your friend would have multiple devices that were running so close to their ultimate limits.

If the mains supply is implicated at all, it seems more likely that the gear was damaged by voltage spikes. Installing surge arrestors would be a good start.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

Thanks Sylvia. To elaborate, this is in Tasmania and my mate recently had a solar/grid installation. The 'electrical inspector' came out and took measurements - he reckons the solar array is adding 1 to 2v above the 'normal' 240v and the rest is coming from the grid itself.

Reply to
Jeßus

Limits in Tas are 207-253v

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Reply to
Jeßus

So, for Tassie, his voltages are bit high. I still don't see it causing widespread damage to his electronic gear.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

If my experience is anything to go by, the high voltage is definitely contributing to equipment failure.

When WA dropped from 250V (nominal) to 240V (Nominal), the failure rates of the computer gear we supported dropped dramatically. This was all DEC or Honeywell gear, so of reasonable quality.

I would definitely follow Phil's suggestion.

Dave Goldfinch

Reply to
Dave Goldfinch

260 V is well above the maximum allowable voltage. I am not sure which electrical inspector you are talking about but Aurora would take a very dim view of that situation. It is possible that a locally installed solar inverter would cause the voltage to be a touch higher inside the house but still be within spec at the connection point. Not 260 V though. Either the distribution transformer needs to be tapped down or somebody with solar has cranked up the maximum voltage cutoff higher than they are supposed to. Either way Aurora should take action.

And yes you will see more electronics failures at that kind of voltage. Components are stressed more than usual. I'm not sure how it applies to the new halogens but incandescents always had shorter lifetimes at higher voltages.

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Reply to
Thomas K

I've got some devices here that state an input voltage of 220-230V, so even at 250V these are quite a bit over their rated spec. That's shouldn't matter because they should be engineered to have tolerance well beyond that.

I would be looking at voltage variations over time and if there are surges jumping from ~240VAC to ~260VAC which may be what is taking out equipment.

Out of curiousity, do you know specifically how/what is failing specifically?

Reply to
Clocky

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