PSU Load test @ 220-240v?

Faldaani

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
195
Hello

Is it feasible for you to load test the PSU's you review at ~220v? Or is the load tester 120v only?

Reason I'm asking is that most of Europe is running somewhere around 220, and it would be nice to have some figures for that as well :)
 
I second this request. I know that HardOCP focuses on the North-American market which is indeed 110/120V-only, but there are a lot of people from Europe and other 220V countries who read HardOCP as well and who'd be interested in learning at least how much more efficient 110 vs 220 V really is with PSUs. At least I know I am :)
 
Corsair have efficiency tables on their PSU pages including both 115V and 230V curves, judging from those alone it would appear that 230V as opposed to 115V in the outlets net you around 2% more efficiency on average.
 
Yes, but I'd be interested to see what happens to the voltages and such when input current is varied, say from 230v to 200v, etc.
 
at the most basic level of explanation, without resorting to mathematical proofs, if you have 5 amps at 220V AC, you will have 10 amps at 110V AC for the same resistive load. I'm sure you can work the rest out.
 
I only did it for a couple reviews just to see if I could meet some PSU manufacturer's ridiculously high efficiency claims.

It's not hard to do as Paul has a varistor he can use to dial the input voltage up and down to wherever he wants. In fact, he does crank the input voltage down from 115V to 100V in every review.

The reason the input voltage is not cranked up past 115V is not to thumb a nose at the Europeans. It's because it's pointless. Really. As voltage goes up, current goes down. The components on the primary side of the PSU are actually subjected to LESS stress than they are at a lower input voltage. What's the point of doing that?

And that's why Paul does the 100V load tests. It's lower voltage, higher current and MORE stressful on the primary side components.
 
I only did it for a couple reviews just to see if I could meet some PSU manufacturer's ridiculously high efficiency claims.

It's not hard to do as Paul has a varistor he can use to dial the input voltage up and down to wherever he wants. In fact, he does crank the input voltage down from 115V to 100V in every review.

The reason the input voltage is not cranked up past 115V is not to thumb a nose at the Europeans. It's because it's pointless. Really. As voltage goes up, current goes down. The components on the primary side of the PSU are actually subjected to LESS stress than they are at a lower input voltage. What's the point of doing that?

And that's why Paul does the 100V load tests. It's lower voltage, higher current and MORE stressful on the primary side components.

Okay, I'll take your word for it =)
 
The Staco is a 0-140v only and my powermeters are all limited to 140v AC so no we don't do 220v. Scaling up to 220v will only net you better efficiency as Jon said.
 
The only way it would even potentially make any difference is with real old, non-PFC PSUs where you had to switch to different components with a manual switch. Then I suppose I would be possible that higher voltages could cause a problem if those components happened to have a problem.

However, I think basically every PSU these days in the enthusiast market have active PFC via a boost converter. What his means is they have an extremely wide range of voltage and frequency in which they can operate. Thus it is the same electronics used for 120v as it is for 240v. So, as others said, 240v will only enhance how well it operates.

Also, even if they did step up the voltage to 240v, it still wouldn't replicate conditions in Europe. Power there is 50Hz, power here is 60Hz. Well that, there really isn't a way to convert easily. A simple transformer won't do it. It'd take a rather expensive setup (probably go AC60-DC-AC50) to do. And again the results would be the same, as the PSUs are frequency agnostic within a large range.
 
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