For Those Worried About The Environment & Power Usage...

[Grainger49]

I bought a Kill-A-Watt.  It isn't a precision instrument.  For instance it reads my incoming power to be 59.9 Hz, my Fluke reads 60 Hz.  

We have had others ask about what Bottlehead equipment consumes.  Here are the figures from my Bottlehead equipment:

Piece             Power (W)       Volt Amps (VA)          Power Factor
Foreplay 2          7.6                   8.4                          0.9
Seduction          10.2                 11.8                         0.84
Paramour (1)      35.9                 40.9                         0.88
Eros                   35.4                 40.9                         0.87
100W Bulb         94.9                 95.1                         0.99 (barely inductive)

The light bulb was a 50/100/150 on the 100W setting and only a few days old.

I will have to get out the calculator to see if this makes sense.

The columns were straight on the desktop, are not now on the laptop.

[Jim R.]

Grainger,

Actually, 59 Hz at any given point in a 24 hour cycle is totally possible and within spec.

Any given power plant has an ongoing calculation that is called "Ld determination" (L sub d) and as long as the total cycles at the end of the 24 hour period ends up at 86,400 and the frequency stays within a certain range, all is kosher.

I used to be an engineering analyst with the electric utility industry's watchdog organization, and one of our responsiblities was o write the book on how to operate a power plant.

-- Jim

[Grainger49]

Then TVA might be a tenth of a Hertz low now, and yesterday when I first plugged it in.  But we will need 60.1 Hz sometime to make up for it.

[Jim R.]

Grainger,

I no longer remember what the acceptable range is, but I blieve it is something from 57 to 63 Hz, and they have to make it up within the 24 hour cycle so that at the end of that period, they have generated exactly 86,400 Hz, ad more often than not, they do this late at night by revving up the turbines a bit.  High demand periods are what draw the frequency down (along with the voltage, aand because of the total inertia of the entire system from boilers to the transmission and distribution system, the time constants are pretty long.

I don't remember the exact protocol for adjusting the generator speeds, and it varies based on size, and a bunch of other parameters, but the operators of your local and operating region (you are in SERC), take care of that.

So really, you'd have to monitor the frequency over a 24 hour period and you would typically see peaks and dips in the actual frequency.

-- Jim

[2wo]

Hey Grainger, I can send you a 1/10 0f a Hz, if you need one, I have a few spares ...John

[dstrimbu]

Grainger, you're cracking me up... I bought one, too, this last weekend.

You were at your local Home Depot, weren't you?  :-)

I've been having a great time with it.

-Don

[Grainger49]

MCM Electronics had a sale on them.  The cell phone chargers don't even register they use such a small amount of energy.

So the BS on the internet about them using too much power is just that, BS!