Utilities & Mobile Best Posts in Thread: Noreco

Thanks for that Brian, we are on prepaid, so I'll try and pay two months next time.

 

Can you pay two months in advance Jim? We pay our Fil-Products 2 months at a time (it is prepaid - no contract) so if we miss one month for any reason we still have a month's grace, doesn't stop them dropping off the monthly Bill each month even when we are another month ahead! But to date we have not been cut off and as far as I know from memory of what was explained to me, if you do not pay your Bill on the due date, you get one month extra before they do cut you off, so should be no problem if you inadvertently forget to pay the bill a few days/ or a week or so after the due date.

 

Well my transformer is going up on my land, so if any drops come from that I will know.

 

Even when having a 50A circuit breaker in your house you will never use that load. You can calculate all appliances together and add 20% to it and you will get the maximum load for your home. The average load is much lower because you never use all of your appliances at once. The electric power provider calculate in a similar way. They think also that not all houses are using their appliances at once. Now there are build more houses or the house owners are starting to upgrade their homes with high power appliances. Then suddenly the average load is above the average load considered for the transformer. This means that it can no longer provide enough power if the load is rising high. Result is a drop in the voltage.

 

The link doesn't really explain why having your own transformer provides better power. My guess is it has something to do with load. P=I x E. P=power, I=Amps, E=voltage. Assuming no loss to make the math easier, what goes into the transformer must go out of the transformer, so 44,000 V x 1 A = 220 V x 200 A. My guess is if you try to draw more than 100 A, the voltage will drop to because you can't create power out of thin air. If every house gets 50A service, then this drop will support 4 houses. Since every house is not likely to be using 50A at the same time, maybe they put 6 or 8 houses on the transformer. Thin provisioning the power, so to speak. I can see two possibilities that might cause an issue. Assuming service isn't controlled/regulated at the line, then the circuit breaker in my house acts as the limiting factor. Now let's say Joe has an electrician buddy who comes in and swaps his circuit beakers from 50A to 75A. In this case, the consumer is causing the issue. The other way this happens is if a new house is built and the power company instead of installing a more powerfull transformer just connects the new service and crosses it's fingers that they don't all turn on their air conditions, fans and electric ovens at the same time. Now looking at the supply side. If the power drops from 44,000 V to 4o,ooo V. The equation becomes 40,000 x 1 A = 220 V x 181.8 A, so a 10% variation on the supply side voltage results in a about a 9% reduction in demand side available current. If these transformers are just barely hanging in there. We start to see problems with the voltage. If I'm only capable of 50 A service, but have a 200 A supply, than the the flectuations on the supply side won't affect me unless it drops to less than 11,000 V. 11,000 V x 1 A = 220 V x 50 A. My guess is there is way to much thin provisioning going on or the home owners are drawing way more power than the electric company sizes for. This really should be easy. I pay for a certain service level and I should be provided that level. That would likely mean oversizing the transformers to insure that fluctuations on the supply side don't cause issues on the demand side. Now maybe someone who actually knows how power systems are sized can straighten me out. I find this interesting.

Edit: The other thing that just came to mind is the stealing of power. In an expat subdivision, it's seems like it would not be much of an issue, but in a squatter area, I can see it being a real problem. It seems like an option to not be thin provisioned for a fair fee might be an interesting option to offer customers, so they don't have to buy their own transformer.