House voltage ranges from 124VAC down to 80!

JDUBS · « **Reply #80 on:** 7 Sep 2009, 09:04 pm »

Bob, woops, totally forgot to put in the model. I got the 1500VA one...max size for a 15A line:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=390088637699

It has at least one fan that I can see on the back. I'll take a closer look at it when I get it to see how many fans I'll need.

Frank, good tip on changing out the fans as well as the PC Sound Dampening material. I might give that a shot.

-Jim

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #81 on:** 7 Sep 2009, 10:24 pm »

I had several scraps of Owens Corning "703" (the stuff you'd made acoustic panels with) and placed them around, above, and below the Liebert. Works great.
Although, it wouldn't look very nice if your equipment is "front and center", but in my situation it works great until I can get the fans.

Good point about dampening material inside. Next time I crack into it, I'll put some in there.
I think I've got a couple one pound bricks of the HVAC/Electrical putty for residential use.

Bob

Frank S. · « **Reply #82 on:** 7 Sep 2009, 11:04 pm »

Wow that was some deal Jim. $102 for a brand new unit! You got all the accessories also. Nice.

JoshK · « **Reply #83 on:** 8 Sep 2009, 03:46 pm »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 7 Sep 2009, 10:24 pm

I had several scraps of Owens Corning "703" (the stuff you'd made acoustic panels with) and placed them around, above, and below the Liebert. Works great.
Although, it wouldn't look very nice if your equipment is "front and center", but in my situation it works great until I can get the fans.

Good point about dampening material inside. Next time I crack into it, I'll put some in there.
I think I've got a couple one pound bricks of the HVAC/Electrical putty for residential use.

Bob

Make sure you leave room for good airflow, the 703 will also insulate the unit if you don't allow for airflow. Of course, the airflow will somewhat limit the sound dampening that the 703 provides.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #84 on:** 8 Sep 2009, 04:37 pm »

Oh yea, I left the front and rear wide open. The Liebert is on the bottom shelf inside my rack. There was an open cavity about 10" tall under the bottom shelf that I filled with 703. I also put a full sized piece on top of the unit. Despite the 703 and the glass door, it's still kinda loud. The quite fans are a necessity for this situation, but especially anybody wanting it sitting out in the open.
Good machine though, I'm very happy.

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #85 on:** 9 Sep 2009, 06:17 pm »

UPDATE:

The tech guy from the electric company came out today with the recommendation from the bosses".
They believe they've diagnosed the problem. I need a larger transformer. Now remember, I'm the only house on this transformer. The unit hanging form the pole happens to be a 15kVa unit. Due to the draw from my 4 ton A/C unit combined with the rest of the house, they feel the existing transformer isn't big enough. They have a 25kVa unit but when the weather is at an extreme and we're really "suckin' the juice', that the problem would return.
Their solution is to hang a 50kVa transformer on my pole.

He answered my next question before I had a chance to ask it..."When".
The next thing that happens is a fellow from the engineering department will come out to analyse the pole itself. It may not be large enough to support the weight of a 50kVa tranny. Soooo.......One day I might look out my window and find their construction department crew ripping MY pole out of the ground and installing a larger (diameter) pole, and a larger tranny along with it. Depending on the work load of the engineering department and the construction department is going to ultimately determine how long it takes to get this done.

I'll tell you what guys, I'd really like to give some LARGE kudos to my power company; "Ameren UE".
The effort they've put forth to fix my "little ol' problem" has surprised me. I asked the tech guy what a transformer (and possibly a new pole) would cost them, but he didn't know.
I also asked if anybody else on my street (way back here in the woods) has had any problems. "Nope", he said.

So...to the guys and gals at Ameren UE.........

I'll let you know when there's an update, but it could be a while.

Frank, thanks again man. You've done a Helluva job as well. Much appreciated.
My Liebert work great.

Bob

p.s. Should I ask for a cyro'd utility pole to properly match the new transformer?

TomS · « **Reply #86 on:** 9 Sep 2009, 06:40 pm »

Wow, hard to believe they'd need to upgrade to that monster for one house but I'd take it in a heartbeat.

Just wondering, haven't they ever heard of buried service and ground mounting the transformers? Seems like it would be cheaper and safer, at least from a storm standpoint. They tend to take that sort of opportunity to just switch it around here.

Tom

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #87 on:** 9 Sep 2009, 07:17 pm »

Hey Tom,
The tech guy was telling me that my single phase service goes from pole, to underground, then back to pole, then underground again in the mile or so it travels form "the big pole".
"That's unusual", he said.
My theory is that I'm soooo far out in the sticks, that every time a new house is built (extending the run even further) they just add on to what they've got. Now they're so far behind the eight ball with so much cable to bury, creeks to cross, poles to remove (easements to "prove") that they've put it on the back burner. Until somebody like me complains, that is. Being so far back here, I'm way down on their preventative maintenance list. They're going to take care of the city folk, and the high rent districts before they spend that kind of cash on us rednecks.

But yea, if they wanna put a monster transformer up....then more power to 'em. aa

Bob

thunderbrick · « **Reply #88 on:** 9 Sep 2009, 08:25 pm »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 9 Sep 2009, 07:17 pm

They're going to take care of the city folk, and the high rent districts before they spend that kind of cash on us rednecks.

But yea, if they wanna put a monster transformer up....then more power to 'em. aa

Bob

a. That's a lousy pun.

b. Once the new transformer is up the next party's at BOB'S HOUSE!!!!!!!

c. Free beer for all at said HT party!!!!!

ALLLLLRRRRRIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHTTTTTT!!!!

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #89 on:** 9 Sep 2009, 08:37 pm »

A:
-- Yea.... After I typed that, I regretted using the words, "monster" in regard to AC power.

-- Also, I thought about editing my post and clarifying that it would be "more power to ME":.

Ok...You got me there Bob. On both counts.

B: Only if I get a job by then. If so, then it's game on. aa

Bob

thunderbrick · « **Reply #90 on:** 9 Sep 2009, 09:56 pm »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 9 Sep 2009, 08:37 pm

A:
-- Yea.... After I typed that, I regretted using the words, "monster" in regard to AC power.

Bob

Gotta be careful there, Bob, you will probably get a letter from Noel Lee demanding royalties for use of the word "m****ter!

JakeJ · « **Reply #91 on:** 10 Sep 2009, 01:16 am »

Gotta say, Bob, this has been one of the most interesting and informative threads I've enjoyed here at AC. Quite a story overall.

Where I live, in a rural part of the Pacific NW, I had wondered just how bad the quality of the AC is. While we don't suffer the brown out type of issues we have little spikes whenever they switch capacitor banks at the substations. These were installed to reduce the bigger spikes from the original older grid switchgear used to shift the power feeds on the grid. The fact that there is so much high frequency grunge on it was a surprise though.

I'm on a slow hunt for my AV Liebert now.

BR,
JakeJ

markC · « **Reply #92 on:** 10 Sep 2009, 02:57 am »

Well Bob, ( in St. Louis), that's good news. I am very impressed with the power company doing this. I'll be less impressed though if it takes them a year to complete.

I'm also a little jealous as I drive up to my house and see how far away the nearest transformer is. I probably share the same tranny with 6 houses!

JDUBS · « **Reply #93 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 06:48 pm »

Guys

I wanted to follow-up on the Liebert I bought a couple weeks back (GXT2U 1500VA model). Hopefully Bob doesn't mind that I'm doing this in his thread, but I figured it was the best place given the info that Frank S. shared with us all here about these units.

Anyway, my setup is as follows: 25' Home Depot 10ga extension cord to a PS Audio Juice Bar II. The Liebert is plugged into the Juice Bar and my 3kva balanced power transformer is plugged into the Liebert. From the balanced power transformer (and so the Liebert), I'm running my cable box, 50" plasma, DEQX 2.6P, Sony PS3 and Popcorn Hour C-200. With the Liebert, I now have super stable 120v balanced power with battery backup for all of this equipment.

As the Liebert was going to be in my listening / living room, I replaced the two fans with the ones that Frank recommended. Stock, the unit is REALLY loud. With the new fans, it is REALLY quiet...essentially silent from my listening seat. Replacement of the fans was an easy process and I did as Frank did and just spliced the red and black wires of the new fans into the existing fan harnesses.

So far, so good!! The unit is only showing 1-2 bars of the LCD lit up indicating a load level of up to 26-50%. I still have my amps plugged into the Juice Bar II (and not the Liebert), but I think that with the existing load level, I could probably use the amps on the Liebert, too. Will try that out.

Anyway, super impressed with the Liebert so far especially for such a minimal investment (eBay!). The fan replacement is easy and really makes it listening room-usable.

Thanks Frank for the info you've shared about the Lieberts!!

-Jim

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #94 on:** 27 Sep 2009, 06:55 pm »

Jim, No Sir, I don't mind you're posting that here. Perfect actually.

This thread had morphed into not just my voltage problems, but also great information about UPS units, and how cool of a guy Frank is.

Good to hear about the fans. They're still on my "to-do" list.

Good stuff!
Bob

JDUBS · « **Reply #95 on:** 30 Sep 2009, 02:26 am »

Yep, Frank is definitely cool in my book.

-Jim

JDUBS · « **Reply #96 on:** 30 Sep 2009, 02:29 am »

You guys are both cool in my book.

-Jim

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #97 on:** 30 Sep 2009, 04:46 pm »

The engineer from the power company just called. They're going to replace my 15KVa transformer with a 25KVa unit within the next couple weeks (at no cost to me).

They are not going to replace the 200 amp cable from the transformer to the meter head with a 400 amp cable.

Oh well. It would have been nice to have the upgrade (think: future expantion aa), but I'm really not asking for something for nothing. I'd just like the problem to go away.

Bob - Happy boy

dhrab · « **Reply #98 on:** 30 Sep 2009, 06:14 pm »

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Speedskater · « **Reply #99 on:** 30 Sep 2009, 06:18 pm »

Bob, before the power company gets to house house, maybe you should measure the source impedance of your AC line. I know that you have a good meter to measure AC voltage, do you have anyway to measure high AC current? (12 to 15 amps). A Kill-a-Watt meter is great. Also do you have a 1200W or 1500W space heater (the oil filed ones are best)?