Voltage Sags and PSU reliability

T

tdowning

Gawd
Joined
Oct 7, 2000
Messages
518
Recent problems with the electrical service in my area have caused me to wonder;

Do long term power sags affect the reliability of PSU's?

To my simple logic, I would hypothesize yes they do particularly when dealing with the kind of situation I am seeing in my home. (the Cheap flourescent light above my head is significantly dimmer than normal. Voltmeter in the AC sockets presently reads 114.6 volts, give or take .2)

I would also expect the increase in failure rate would increase only slightly at a few volts under, but become significant at greater deficiencies

Attempts at google searches did not go so well. If you find something please post the search query you used.
 
What PSU are you using? If it has active PFC you can be ok as long as the mains aren't drooping below 100V although it can be rough on your other components.
 
100-130v is ok for most modern computer psu's, generally 115 is considered right in the middle so 114 is just fine. If you are worried about major voltage droop you should get a UPS with AVR.
 
I've got everything from RaidMax to Antec to generic, as well as a PowerMac Dual Procesor G5. (I've heard those ones are rated for a kilowatt)

I do have APC UPS's protecting everything, and I do mean Everything. I haven't had a single component die on me since I got a Back-ups ES 725 Broadband model for my network equipment. (mainly to run coax and Ethernet through it) Before then, I would occasionally have a Linksys/netgear router or an ethernet card die on me at least once a year.

This was just more or less to satisfy my own curiosity, because I know there are a few electrical engineers on the boards.

Thanks everyone
 
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