APC beeping

I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?

Andy wrote:
I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?


Yes.

https://electronics.stackexchange.co...ehold-supplies

"We had problems with low voltage in a house I lived in long ago.

We had to replace the motor for the water pump several times,
and the heating elements in the oven and stove burned out.

That last sounds stupid. How does something that is supposed
to get hot burn out because the voltage is too low? It wasn't
the elements themselves, but rather the connectors. The heating
elements draw less current when hot, but due to the low voltage
didn't get hot fast enough. The connectors were therefore
carrying higher current for longer than intended, and they got
hot and burned out.
"

When my power dropped to 100V, I turned off the central heating.
Because repairs on that system usually cost a fortune.

I left the refrigerator running, because it's at least 40 years
old, and it "needs a nice sendoff". Still didn't manage to kill it.
It's still running today.

Electric motors can do poorly if underloaded or if overloaded.
Find an article on electric motors, to learn more.

Paul

Paul wrote:
Andy wrote:
I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?


Yes.

https://electronics.stackexchange.co...ehold-supplies

"We had problems with low voltage in a house I lived in long ago.

We had to replace the motor for the water pump several times,
and the heating elements in the oven and stove burned out.

That last sounds stupid. How does something that is supposed
to get hot burn out because the voltage is too low? It wasn't
the elements themselves, but rather the connectors. The heating
elements draw less current when hot, but due to the low voltage
didn't get hot fast enough. The connectors were therefore
carrying higher current for longer than intended, and they got
hot and burned out.
"

I guess I'm still a bit of a doubting Thomas on that last one (about the
connectors burning out due to the lower voltage - even though it is true
that as the element heats up, it draws less current (due to an increase in
its resistance). But maybe that's just me. :-)


When my power dropped to 100V, I turned off the central heating.
Because repairs on that system usually cost a fortune.

I left the refrigerator running, because it's at least 40 years
old, and it "needs a nice sendoff". Still didn't manage to kill it.
It's still running today.

Electric motors can do poorly if underloaded or if overloaded.
Find an article on electric motors, to learn more.

Paul

Yup, I think the motors catch the brunt of this (running on low voltage
whilst under load), With 100V, I think I'd want to turn off the
refrigerator too (but only if "practicable").

On Wed, 31 Oct 2018 20:12:47 -0700 (PDT), Andy
wrote:

I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?

Try tripping and resetting the main breaker and maybe all the others.
If the voltage is low on the main lugs, call the PoCo.
Check line to line and line to neutral. If the line to neutral is
unbalanced call the PoCo and tell them you have a bad neutral. If one
side is over 120v, you may be blowing up a lot of stuff.

In message , Andy
writes:
I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?

For a definite answer, you'll have to RTFM for the APC, but yes, it is
likely.

As well as the points raised by others (especially the one about the
other phase being too high): assuming APC means a UPS or similar, it
could be that it's supplying from its battery; many of these units don't
pass the mains through if it's below some threshold, though I'd hope
that would be above 98 for a nominally 110 supply. But if the threshold
is 10%, that would explain it. Obviously if it is supplying from its
battery, this may run down.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Veni Vidi Vacuum [I came, I saw, It sucked] - , 1998

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Andy
writes:
I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?

For a definite answer, you'll have to RTFM for the APC, but yes, it is
likely.

As well as the points raised by others (especially the one about the
other phase being too high): assuming APC means a UPS or similar, it
could be that it's supplying from its battery; many of these units don't
pass the mains through if it's below some threshold, though I'd hope
that would be above 98 for a nominally 110 supply. But if the threshold
is 10%, that would explain it. Obviously if it is supplying from its
battery, this may run down.

There's two kinds of "phase failures".

You can have a neutral failure at the house level.
Half the light bulbs in the house end up "super-bright".

But the other kind is a similar issue at the substation.
An input to the substation, it seems one wire is opened,
but there is still enough power available to run the
neighborhood at the resultant reduced voltage
(about 100V).

I can tell when that has happened, because the traffic
lights at the corner are dim.

Paul

On Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 8:50:38 AM UTC-5, Paul wrote:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Andy
writes:
I had some lighting and several power outages.

My APC is beeping.

I checked my AC voltage and it is around 98 Volts.

It's normally around 117 - 120 V.

Is it beeping because the AC voltage is too low?

For a definite answer, you'll have to RTFM for the APC, but yes, it is
likely.

As well as the points raised by others (especially the one about the
other phase being too high): assuming APC means a UPS or similar, it
could be that it's supplying from its battery; many of these units don't
pass the mains through if it's below some threshold, though I'd hope
that would be above 98 for a nominally 110 supply. But if the threshold
is 10%, that would explain it. Obviously if it is supplying from its
battery, this may run down.

There's two kinds of "phase failures".

You can have a neutral failure at the house level.
Half the light bulbs in the house end up "super-bright".

But the other kind is a similar issue at the substation.
An input to the substation, it seems one wire is opened,
but there is still enough power available to run the
neighborhood at the resultant reduced voltage
(about 100V).

I can tell when that has happened, because the traffic
lights at the corner are dim.

Paul

I got my power back after about 10 hrs.

We had tornadoes in the area.

A tree may have hit a transformer.

And the beeping stopped.

Andy