House wiring? (slightly off-topic)

[Robert Donker]

If you test a 100 watt bulb you'll find it always draws a 100 watts, to keep
it's side of ohm's law balanced, it must draw more current (generate more
heat) at a lower voltage. This proves true in the lab, you can quickly burn
out a bulb buy lowering the AC voltage. Sort of. The reality is its in a AC
environment. This means it will behave like an frequency dependant impedance
(like a speaker for example) and the actual current draw is a more
complicated to calculate. However the ohm's law still rules. If the watt's
remain the same and you lower the voltage the current draw will increase.



-----Original Message-----
From: Glen [mailto:mclilith at ezwv.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2000 11:05 AM
To: Robert Donker; 'IXQY at aol.com'; synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl
Subject: RE: House wiring? (slightly off-topic)


At 12:44 PM 12/27/00 , Robert Donker wrote:

>You have a relatively new house showing what is an extraordinary behavior
on

>your AC. This is more likely a low AC voltage (remember, a 100 W bulb @ 100

>volts draws 1 amp, a 100 @ bulb @ 50 volts draws 2 amps) causing excessive

>current in the lights. 



I'm not sure I understand how you intended that to be interpreted. If I

understand you correctly, you have just stated that a 100 Watt bulb

connected to a source of 100 Volts would pass one Ampere of current. (So

far, so good.) You also seem to say that very same bulb when connected to

only 50 Volts would then pass 2 Amperes of current. If this is the meaning

you intended, it is totally incorrect. The same bulb will actually pass

less amperage when connected to a lower voltage source.



Perhaps you intended to say the right thing, but it just ended up being

worded in a confusing manner?





As for the original problem of the man's light bulbs blowing too often, I

suggest he contact a qualified electrician in his area, or his local power

company for advice. There are many things which could contribute to such a

situation, and it is not easy or prudent to try and troubleshoot this via

an email mailing list. I can vouch for the "poor ground/neutral scenario"

that another poster mentioned. That is certainly one possibility. I've seen

it happen myself, but I'm sure there are others possible causes as well. In

the case that I saw, some aluminum wiring had disintegrated inside the

cable between the electrical meter and the breaker box. The resulting poor

connection gave all sorts of crazy voltage problems, and it was a definite

fire hazard as well.



Since this is such a high-stakes diagnosis, I would definitely contact a

fully qualified professional in my area to handle the job. If you have any

serious wiring problems, it could possibly pose a serious fire hazard for

your home. It might not simply be a threat to your light bulbs and

synthesizer gear that we are talking about. Let's hope that you've just

been buying a poor grade of light bulbs lately, but to be sure, have the

situation checked by a professional to determine what is really happening.





Good luck,

Glen