Go home, Norfolk Mains Electricity, you're drunk. And lairy.

imalone

Ah, the old "lol or wisdom?" debate.

Emp_Fab

I often have the opposite problem - I've seen my supply drop to 210 sometimes.

Phil_aka_Pip

Emp_Fab said:

I often have the opposite problem - I've seen my supply drop to 210 sometimes.

Like @ICBM says: wire the secondary up the other way round

ICBM

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Emp_Fab said:

I often have the opposite problem - I've seen my supply drop to 210 sometimes.

Like @ICBM says: wire the secondary up the other way round

Careful…

If that's a *variable* voltage rather than consistently low, when it's closer to the nominal then the output voltage will be higher than it's supposed to be, since the transformer gives a fixed ratio.

Unless it's consistently well below the nominal voltage - in which case a complaint to the power company is in order - then I would never step it up. Most modern equipment will work equally well with a little lower voltage - in fact switch-mode power supplies aren't affected at all, which is why you often see them labelled "100-240V".

MatthewShreddery

Does a power conditioner help with this sort of thing?

ICBM

MatthewShreddery said:

Does a power conditioner help with this sort of thing?

Yes, if it's a proper conditioner and not just a spike/noise suppressor.

Rocker

Thanks @ICBM, as you say it is an auto transformer when wired up that way. Ingenious. It is a bad day when you don't learn something new.

Jalapeno

Have a Rack protector for my pathetically small amount of studio gear, only really got it 'cos Clarky told us all to on MR or even Intermusic (well that and all the power out sockets, and the sexy downlighters )

Regularly shows input as between 259v-261v

Emp_Fab

I've got all mine running through a UPS I acquired.  It does all that boosting / cutting / filtering stuff.  You can hear it cutting in when the voltage goes off-piste.  It's a pain in the summer though as I use a pressure washer a fair bit and it overheats quicker when the voltage is low.  P=IV, V=IR and all that stuff ol' Georg discovered.