biertourist
Well-Known Member
Is there a minimum % voltage droop or minimum voltage that is supposed to be supplied for residential electricity?
-What can you do if your voltage is under this lower limit?
My electric oven and electric dryer have all seemingly had problems since I moved in; the Dryer takes 2 1/2 - 3 hours to dry a load of clothes and things in the oven always need to be cooked hotter and longer than all recipes state. -In preparation for hooking up my almost completed electric brewery I tested each 120v line coming into my 50 amp electric oven outlet (on a 40 amp breaker), and they both read between 118 and 119 volt (Yea!); HOWEVER, when I connect my multimeter across both 120v lines I only get 206 volts on the "240 volt" side.... That's REALLY low...
I get the same at my dryer plug and I'm imagining at the electric water heater although I'm not going to take it apart to check it...
One more question: Is there a way that I can calculate how many watts I'd actually get out of my 5500w electric element if I'm only getting 206 volts "in"? -@ 240v 5500w = almost exactly 23 amps, does this mean that I'll only get 206v * 23 amps or 4.7kw out of my 5.5kw electric element?
(I also remember hearing that the relationship between voltage and wattage isn't linear and that @ 120v a 240v element will only have 1/4th the wattage so I'm actually expecting that the drop in wattage output is greater still but I'm not sure how to properly calculate it...)
Adam
-What can you do if your voltage is under this lower limit?
My electric oven and electric dryer have all seemingly had problems since I moved in; the Dryer takes 2 1/2 - 3 hours to dry a load of clothes and things in the oven always need to be cooked hotter and longer than all recipes state. -In preparation for hooking up my almost completed electric brewery I tested each 120v line coming into my 50 amp electric oven outlet (on a 40 amp breaker), and they both read between 118 and 119 volt (Yea!); HOWEVER, when I connect my multimeter across both 120v lines I only get 206 volts on the "240 volt" side.... That's REALLY low...
I get the same at my dryer plug and I'm imagining at the electric water heater although I'm not going to take it apart to check it...
One more question: Is there a way that I can calculate how many watts I'd actually get out of my 5500w electric element if I'm only getting 206 volts "in"? -@ 240v 5500w = almost exactly 23 amps, does this mean that I'll only get 206v * 23 amps or 4.7kw out of my 5.5kw electric element?
(I also remember hearing that the relationship between voltage and wattage isn't linear and that @ 120v a 240v element will only have 1/4th the wattage so I'm actually expecting that the drop in wattage output is greater still but I'm not sure how to properly calculate it...)
Adam