[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Hz

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 12:34:15PM -0500, Fred James wrote:
> It would seem logical that since no circuit board is likely to run
> on household current directly, there must be a transformer of some
> sort in the mix.  Might it be reasonable to assume that the
> resulting voltage applied to the circuit board(s) could vary,
> possibly considerably?  

Rusty already provided an excellent reply; here's my additional $0.02.

Voltages on the AC lines already vary a fair bit over time
and always have.  For example, earlier today I measured the
voltage on one of my outlets at 124.7 volts; right now it's
showing 123.9 volts.  Such variation is normal and expected.
As long as the voltage is somewhere in the vicinity of 110 volts
I think any modern appliance ought to be able to handle it.

It's very unlikely that any sort of frequency loosening by the
power companies is the source of your difficulties.  If it were,
I'd expect to be seeing many more news reports of similar problems
from others with similar appliances (and we're not seeing such
reports).

If you're seeing problems with multiple appliances, perhaps 
there's a fault somewhere in the household wiring itself 
or one of the other appliances connected to the circuits?
Just a thought.

Pm

P.S.:  
  News article about the experiment in the U.S. (2011-06-25): 
    http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13927027
  It seems there hasn't been much more written about it than 
  this AP-sourced article; which tells me it's either been a 
  non-event (like Y2K?) or they haven't started the experiment yet.