[ale] More on LEDs...

[Jim Kinney]

That is REALLY BAD!!

The one thing that power providers are REQUIRED to make is 60.0 Hz.
Otherwise BadThings happen to many, many devices (medical, media, etc).
They're not supposed to be able to inject into the grid without a lock in
at 60.0Hz. That's a big expense for home power to be able to sell back
excess into the grid is the gear to synchronize at 60.0Hz. If the power is
out of phase, it reduces the power available on the grid and really pisses
off all the other grid providers.

So I think he got the problem wrong.

Many providers don't provide a solid 110V (actually they provide something
around 125kV that gets transformered down to house 110/220V.). A cost
savings way to provide power is to be sloppy on the output power - i.e.
provide 109V or 108V.

A power device expecting 110V and getting 109 or less loses efficiency and
often that will cost either excess heat (which lowers lifetime) or simply
produced less output (should not impact lifetime). My battery backups
_really_ don't like the generator I have as the bottom end of the AC cycle
is noisy and below 108V causing rapid switching. I was able to adjust the
kick-in voltage and save the batteries (ugh! all due for replacement and
$150+ each).


On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 10:11 AM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com> wrote:

> I just had my air conditioner replaced yesterday, and the AC guy said
> something that I thought was interesting. He said that Alabama Power (my
> provider) was fairly good at producing power inexpensively, but bad at
> distributing it. He said that rather than the supposed 60hz that they're
> supposed to deliver, it's usually a little less than that - say around
> 58-59Hz. It's usually close enough to not fry everything from brownouts,
> but also low enough to lower the longevity of things like these
> energy-saving lights that are supposed to last ten years. This has been my
> experience, by the way. They tend to go bad after a couple of years (maybe).
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 4:38 AM, Jim Lynch <ale_nospam at fayettedigital.com>wrote:
>
>> On 08/12/2013 11:09 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>>
>>> I wish I could figure out a way to participate in the led market but the
>>> big box stores and online retailers eliminate most of the possibilities for
>>> little guys.
>>>
>> There's always the niche markets, like RV and boat users  who are looking
>> for better ways to conserve power.
>>
>> Jim.
>>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
*
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at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
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