Power Conditioner - Voltage Regulator - Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

**PFC5** · 09-16-2009, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mobiushky

I've seen something similar to this in a production facility. They were suffering from some weird problems with flickering lights and other problems they couldn't explain. Initially we suspected an RF welder was the problem. So we took waveforms and measurements on the welder during operation. As a routine part of the study, I suggested we check the various panels throughout the building. We came to one panel that was used to power many of the lights and receptacles in the storefront area and the offices. Asked the electrician with me to check the ground and neutral connections and the neutral was barely tightened. As he tightened it the lights and equipment around us flickered and sputtered.

I suspect that was their biggest issue was a loose neutral connection. It's not unheard of to have loose terminals in panels that either were forgotten or loosened over time. The RF welder was also moved to a separate feed and fed from an isolation transformer to isolate the noise it created from the rest of the system. Grounding is a surprisingly common culprit in cases like this.

Proper grounding is essential for eletricity to work properly.

It reminds me of a car my wife had before we got married. I replaced the starter and solenoid in it because it would intermittently not start and it was usually AFTER she drove somewhere and parked so she was stuck. It seems to work fine for a couple of days and then started over and over again and I had to jump the solenoid to get it to start. It was tested to be fine, so I ended up rigging a marine switch in the glove box with cables going to the solenoid to effectively allow my wife to jump the solenoid without using a screwdriver under the hood.

Even that stopped working after about 1 month so I finally buckled and went to a mechanic who insisted that it was the starter. I didn't believe them, so i made them guaranty in writing that if the problem didn't go away they would refund the parts & labor AND pay for the towing if it did happen. Sure enough it did.

At that point I didn't know what to do, but when I traced all the wiring in the car I noticed the braided flat grounding cable from the engine block to the chassis had a slight nick in it and replaced that and the problem was gone for good. Total cost was about $5.00 for the cable and 15 minutes of my time for the real fix.

Loose or improper grounding was the cause there and for some reason was intermittent.

rightbryce · 09-21-2009, 05:53 PM

well, i just tried an APC UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation). the result = no improvement whatesoever.

i am now convinced this is a grounding problem.

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09-21-2009, 05:53 PM	#17
rightbryce High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 31	well, i just tried an APC UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation). the result = no improvement whatesoever. i am now convinced this is a grounding problem.