[conspire] Computer Gremlins -- bad AC power?

[Dana Goyette]

My dad came by with an electrician friend, and he checked some of the voltages on the busbars when doing things like starting the dryer, and said it seemed pretty normal and balanced (only dipping down to 119V or so.  The cases he's seen of floating neutral went outside the range of 90 on the low side.

I'm going to see how my stability is with the UPS, and my dad said he'll still try to get PG&E to check for any problems on their end.  

Do you know of any off-the-shelf and not-crazy-expensive tools to log the voltage with finer time resolution?  It's possible the dips and spikes are too short for the multimeter to catch.

> On Oct 4, 2021, at 1:52 PM, Dana Goyette <danagoyette at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the tips about weak neutral!  I told my dad (he owns the place) about it, and he said he'll take care of calling PG&E to have them come check it out.
> 
>> On Oct 3, 2021, at 1:55 PM, Leo <yaconsult at gmail.com <mailto:yaconsult at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> I had an experience with this in years past at my apartment.  I had called Comcast out due to the cable being out and after checking it, the tech said that their cable had literally melted off the side of the building.  He said that when he pulled the burnt cable off there was a big spark and he was unable to repair it.  He said he had reported it to PG&E and they would be out sometime that week.  I had also noticed the voltage meter on my UPS showing voltages ranging between 80 and 140 volts!
>> 
>> I was not happy with the "sometime this week" estimate and called PG&E myself making sure they were aware of the Comcast tech reporting sparks and a fire hazard on the side of these old wooden buildings where all the wiring was done in the 60's and the incoming power lines lived in a wooden box on the side of building.  PG&E had a truck outside and a guy up the pole within the hour!  It turned out to be a faulty ground which was quickly repaired and has been fine ever since.  Comcast came back the next day and replaced their cable which took care of the connectivity problem.
>> 
>> In retrospect, there were other indications of a problem like lights dimming when appliances turned on.
>> 
>> Leo
>> 
>> On Sat, Oct 2, 2021 at 2:53 PM Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com <mailto:rick at linuxmafia.com>> wrote:
>> Paul Zander wrote:
>> 
>> > I had a similar situation some years ago.  Basically every time my
>> > neighbor's new air conditioner switched on my lights would dim.
>> > Multiple calls to PG&E over several weeks.
>> 
>> To reiterate a point I made earlier, in hopes that my broad hint will
>> sink in, this time:
>> 
>> Back a few years ago, when we had lights suddenly dimming and
>> brightening, and suspected something systemically wrong, we called in a
>> professional electrian _first_, and he was able to give an expert
>> diagnosis that the PG&E incoming 'neutral' line was no longer
>> functional.  _Armed_ with that intelligence from an actual electrician
>> as opposed to just a resident making a loose claim to PG&E, we were able
>> to have PG&E send a truck that same day -- and _not_ go through multiple
>> calls to PG&E over several weeks.
>> 
>> Essentially, I had amateur-eyeballed the symptoms as potentially
>> ominous, estimated the potential damage to household appliances and
>> electric gear as ruinous, and concluded that getting paid-by-me expert
>> scrutiny right-freakin'-now was justified.  And I was correct.
>> 
>> The only confirmed long-term damage is that the digital clock in our
>> oven has been wonky since that day.  But I may have averted untold tens
>> of thousands of dollars in other damage by not sodding around and hiring
>> a professional to check things _immediately_.
>> 
>> Sometimes, "pay for an expert" is the smart move.
>> 
>> I cannot speak to whether the symptoms Dana reported are equivalently
>> ominous, especially as I have only his second-hand report and no direct
>> knowledge.  He (and his father the property-owner) will need to -- or,
>> at least, should -- make a similar judgement call, yes or not, to what 
>> I did.  But what I'm saying is, _if_ in your judgement there's
>> significant risk of a house-systemic electrical feed problem, don't sod
>> around.
>> 
>> And it sounded, to me, like a situation justifying calling in the pros.
>> (I've now said that twice, and will not keep repeating myself.)
>> 
>> 
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