Why is it called 110volt and 220volt? Sheesh...

[whammoed]

Got the wife a used tanning bed over the weekend.  I told her I would get her one when we moved from Florida to Indiana so she could still get some "rays" all year.  Anyway, it requires 220 and tanning beds aren't supposed to be run over 230 volts or you will ruin the bed/bulbs faster.  I measured my 220 and it reads 262v!!!!!!  (110 line is at 125v)  I tested my parents line in the same area of town and it was the same.  Is this typical everywhere or just where I am?  I will have to buy a buck booster to run this stupid thing now.  I'm glad I got a deal on it, because getting a 220 line run and now getting a buck booster is sure adding up.  Soooo, uh....go get your multimeter, measure your voltage, and post here with your voltage and location.  Yeah, that'll be fun. 

[ChadTower]

262v unregulated with no load.  Try again with the bed running.

[whammoed]

With the oven on it drops to 255.

[Ken Layton]

Alot of equipment manufactured nowadays has provisions for adjusting the input voltage to the device. Just like pinball machines have taps on the main transformer to adjust for local line voltages.

[ChadTower]

Remember, voltage is capacity, not current. 

[whammoed]

The tanning beds manual specifically states a voltage range and that the bed will be damaged if run outside that range.  I believe they are all like that.

[patrickl]

Did you measure this "over" something consuming electricity or did you put the leads in the socket?

[whammoed]

Did you measure this "over" something consuming electricity or did you put the leads in the socket?

When researching online about tanning bed voltages and such it said to measure incoming voltage so I put the leads in the socket.  I do notice a significant drop when running one of our 220volt appliances like the dryer...

[patrickl]

I guess with the mains it doesn't matter really, but then I'm no electrician. With battery operated stuff you are always supposed to measure "under load". So never mind.

BTW voltage here is 215, but that's in the Netherlands

[ChadTower]

Batteries are DC.  Different concept.

[Level42]

BTW voltage here is 215, but that's in the Netherlands

Hey that's strangely low for here. It should be 230 V plus or minus 10 percent.So it still is within limits but usualy it's pretty close to the 230 here.

It used to be 240 in the UK, 220 mainland Europe. They lowered it in the UK about 10 years ago, and we went up.

220 in the US is used for ovens etc, pretty much the same like we sometimes have 380V for really electricity hungry stuff.....
If you stick to the 10% rule the max you should get is 220+22=242 Volts....

However, the US is still in the stoneage regarding to electricity, they have poles with cables in the air and local transformers on those poles. If you're near one, you're probably getting more voltage then when you're further away from it (that's exactly the same here by the way).

Also, what kind of multimeters are you guys using ? Really cheapo meters can be pretty much off.

Anyway, the best thing to do is get rid of the bed alltogether. First it will safe your wife getting really old skin way to early and from skincancer, second: Do you realize how many cabs will fit into the space that bed is eating up

[Howard_Casto]

Just to clarify, we aren't in the "stone age" we just have a frikkin huge country.  It is impractical to bury all of our lines in the ground.  As for pole mounted transformers, I haven't seen one in at least 15 years.  That is unless you REALLY go into the boondocks.

[danny_galaga]

Remember, voltage is capacity, not current. 

capacity is measured in Farads...

[danny_galaga]

the extra high voltages you guys are talking about is 3-phase BTW. 110 or 220/240 is single phase. lines are still mostly above ground in australia. the reason places like australia, canada and the US still use these is mostly due to cost. underground lines have to be a lot thicker because they dont run as cool and then theres all that digging. where im from, Darwin gets a lot of cyclone activity so there are by laws that say that all new lines have to be underground. over time they are planning on undergrounding the lot but like i say, its expensive! the next cyclone that blows it all down again will fix that 

[shardian]

Remember, voltage is capacity, not current. 

capacity is measured in Farads...

capacitance...

[whammoed]

Don't know if my multimeter was on the blink or what, but it was behaving strangely so I got another.  They are both reading in the range of 240 - 247 throughout the day which seems much more reasonable than 262.  Still need a buck booster though. 

[ChadTower]

Remember, voltage is capacity, not current. 

capacity is measured in Farads...

Not a capacitANCE... capacity of the line.  As in what it one would expect to see on it.

BTW, we have pole mounted transformers here.  They are normal.

[danny_galaga]

Remember, voltage is capacity, not current. 

capacity is measured in Farads...

capacitance...

touche! (if i can say that to a third party)

[danny_galaga]

Remember, voltage is capacity, not current. 

capacity is measured in Farads...

Not a capacitANCE... capacity of the line.  As in what it one would expect to see on it.

BTW, we have pole mounted transformers here.  They are normal.

pole mounted are common here too.

[ChadTower]

I was wandering around my living room about 3am a few weeks ago when a transformer blew on a pole 100 yards down the street.  The whole street lit up blue for about 15 seconds and then the whole street went completely pitch black without power.  It was cool to see.

[whammoed]

pole mounted are common here too.

Danny, thats enough about your personal life.   

[danny_galaga]

pole mounted are common here too.

Danny, thats enough about your personal life.   

you should see the photos! chad, i have had the priviledge of seeing a transformer blow up too. great isnt it! 

[Level42]

Don't stand too close to it when it happens, also for the bad fumes (formaldehyde !)

Here's a pic I took a couple of weeks ago while on holiday in the US (Massachusetts). I assume those things all the way up in the pole are transformers.

[ChadTower]

They are step down transformers.  The voltage on those overhead lines is high enough to flash fry a person.  Those transformers step the voltage down right before it comes into your house.

[MYX]

Yeah, 110, 111, whatever it takes.

[rdagger]

Yeah, 110, 111, whatever it takes.

"220, 221, whatever it takes..."

[Stingray]

BTW, we have pole mounted transformers here.  They are normal.

Still pretty common here too.

-S

[shardian]

If I remember correctly from my Ciruits II days, power lines carry 14,000 volts.

[ChadTower]

In a situation where the load is balanced properly, the equipment is completely functional, and nothing is jury rigged to compensate for overbuilding or missing lines/equipment that has failed and not been replaced.

And there aren't many lines like that where I live.  The structure is just too damn old.

[Ed_McCarron]

If I remember correctly from my Ciruits II days, power lines carry 14,000 volts.

Depends.

Typical for our area, the top-most lines on the poles carry 13.2kv.

Chad's right, if depressing.  Get tangled up in that and it'll burn you to a cinder after it stops your

[ChadTower]

Chad's right, if depressing.  Get tangled up in that and it'll burn you to a cinder after it stops your

post?

[Ed_McCarron]

Chad's right, if depressing.  Get tangled up in that and it'll burn you to a cinder after it stops your

post?

Good answer.  I hate when the rest of my post gets lost in the ether.

I was gonna say heart.  You become a 200A biological fuse.

[ChadTower]

I was thinking maybe you tripped your fuse before finishing the post.

[Dervacumen]

They are step down transformers.  The voltage on those overhead lines is high enough to flash fry a person.  Those transformers step the voltage down right before it comes into your house.

And they're full of dielectric oil.  At least the ones I've seen are.

[Random24]

A bit off topic, but here is a neat video of what happens when a power station's 500 KVA switch is thrown.

http://mfile.akamai.com/5022/wmv/coast.download.akamai.com/5022/video/LugoSWR.asx

[shardian]

A bit off topic, but here is a neat video of what happens when a power station's 500 KVA switch is thrown.

http://mfile.akamai.com/5022/wmv/coast.download.akamai.com/5022/video/LugoSWR.asx

I'm no expert on super high voltage stuff, but that video sure looks fake.

[ChadTower]

Looks like a tesla coil concept... could easily be fake, though. 

[Random24]

Here is a good explanation of what is going on in the video.

http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/day.htm

[lokki]

If I remember correctly from my Ciruits II days, power lines carry 14,000 volts.

Depends.

Typical for our area, the top-most lines on the poles carry 13.2kv.

Chad's right, if depressing.  Get tangled up in that and it'll burn you to a cinder after it stops your

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission

Actually it depends on region/country and generating company.  And distance from generation to consumption. If the distance between the power plants and the cities that they are serving are huge. The voltage on the transmission lines is upped (since there is a lot of loss over the distance).  This is the case in contries like russia where a Water Dam (and hydro Plant) could be 100's of miles from any cities.

Transmission voltages of up to 2000 Kv are used.

This has a chart of some of the voltages that some companies use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVDC

[whammoed]

Got everything set up.  Ran the 220 line myself.  The buck booster is the Gray box on the wall.  It plugs into the 220 socket and the tanning bed plugs into it.  Drops the voltage by 16.