Listening is the act of aural discrimination and dissemination of sound, and accepting you get it wrong sometimes.
Analog Inputs: Pro-Ject Signature 10 TT & arm, Benz Micro LP-S, Michel Cusis MC, Goldring 2500 and Ortofon Rondo Blue cartridges, Hitachi FT5500 mk2 Tuner
Digital:- Marantz SA-KI Pearl CD player, RaspberryPi/HifiBerry Digi+ Pro, Buffalo NAS Drive
Amplification:- AudioValve Sunilda phono stage, Krell KSP-7B pre-amp, Krell KSA-80 power amp
Output: Wilson Benesch Vector speakers, KLH Ultimate One Headphones
Cables: Tellurium Q Ultra Black II RCA & Chord Epic 2 RCA, various speaker leads, & links
I think I am nearing audio nirvana, but don’t tell anyone.
Location: Moved to frozen north, beyond Inverness
Posts: 2,602
I'm Dave.
Probably nearer or more than £300, unfortunately. Our neighbour suggests that since there were power failures, that the trip would most likely have happened when the power came back on.
Are there any devices which can prevent or mitigate against this? For example, detect power cut, then delay power to one of more plug sockets by various random times? If power cuts are going to be common and frequent, any devices to protect angainst this could be well worthwhile.
Another useful device would be a temperature logger in the fridge and freezer, as then the severity and time and duration of the power cut could be checked, thus reducing the need to throw away all the food.
Do such devices exist?
Dave
When power is restored after a power cut, connection is made when the AC cycle passes through 0V. That way no current is drawn, minimising any 'surge'.
Barry
Location: Moved to frozen north, beyond Inverness
Posts: 2,602
I'm Dave.
Is it as simple as that? Doesn't it depend on the load in each house, whether it's inductive, capacitative, or whatever? The impact of most houses on the grid as it comes live again is presumably not too significant - but within houses there might be effects. The RCDs are triggered by various conditions - for safety reasons. I suppose that faulty wiring might make those conditions more likely after a power cut - but in that case it would be good to know what the possible faults might be, and have the wiring checked to mitigate against those. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I can't afford to throw away all the food in a freezer if power cuts become frequent.
Dave
I'm not sure. Admittedly some items which have a motor in them may present a power factor which is not unity, but they will be close to unity. Ali Tait works in the electric distribution business, so he might be able to advise.
The only time one of the RCBOs in the consumer unit tripped out was when I was checking a 1.5kVA industrial step down transformer. I put it down to the initial magnetising current transient.
Barry
Location: Moved to frozen north, beyond Inverness
Posts: 2,602
I'm Dave.
I don't really know. In years gone past, we lived close to the end of a distribution spur - there was a transformer opposite our house. We also used to use incandescent light bulbs - but in recent years we switched to more modern lower energy ones. It wasn't completely clear cut, but we did feel that the light bulbs blew at a significantly above average rate, and I think others at our end of the road felt the same. It gradually seemed to become less of a problem - but I don't know why. Possibly the installation of a new transformer a few years ago made a difference. Seeing it installed was interesting, as a huge crane arrived to raise it over a field, and remove the old one.
It's difficult to know whether there really is/was a cause/effect relationship between problems in the supply infrastructure and failures within the home. We did have a couple of freezer failures, similar to the current one, but over a period of 17 years. Now that we have moved, power failures do seem more common, and also very localised. Sometimes only a few hundred homes are affected by power outages. Although I don't want to have to dump food from freezers, a failure rate of around one event in every eight years is probably not impossible to cope with, but a higher failure rate would really scare me.
Dave
Self Insurance crossed my mind
Putting away every year's premium and having that to pay for any damage.
After all insurance companies have to pay out for all sorts and a lot of their customers are not as careful as us - are they ....?
Then they have to pay staff salaries and make a profit
TAD CD / DAC / Pre, Technics 1210, MCRU PSU, Mike New Bearing & Platter, Stillpoints LP1 weight, Speedy Steve Ebony armboard, Fidelity Research FR64FX arm, Ortofon SPU. Aurorasound VIDA Phono Pre Amp, TAD Power Amp, TAD E1 speakers. Coherent RTZ 3 Grounding box, Coherent grounding cables, Creaktiv racks. Coherent Mains Cables. SR Blue Fuse. Interconnects : Coherent and Yannis 223.5 Connect Litz. Coherent speaker cable. Audio Magic Transcendence Conditioner. Coherent mains socket. Mains Filters : , PS Audio Harvesters, Russ Andrews Purifiers, Tacima, Vertex. Black Ravioli and RDC supports. Electric Beach S1NX platforms for TAD CD and Technics. Ferrite chokes everywhere except the above. Ears, brain
Mike