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Interested in having a whole house voltage regulator installed for the protection of pool pump in addition to the house.

Who sells them locally any any advice about their use and installation would be appreciated.

Bill

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In 13 years, we have never used regulators, and have never lost an appliance. Regulators only adjust for small voltage fluctuations and do not protect against massive surges; those are the situations where damage may be done, as in a lightning strike at your house. Little else need be feared.

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I have whole house voltage regulators but they don't protect against power surges or brownouts. I use individual Exceline surge/brownout protectors for each device including my pool pump.

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I have whole house voltage regulators but they don't protect against power surges or brownouts. I use individual Exceline surge/brownout protectors for each device including my pool pump.

How much do the Exceline protectors cost? What voltage ranges do they protect/cover? What amperages do they supply?

We've used and tested the Koblenz model, and it really does convert 90V - 140V to a stable 120V, up to 25A supplied (for $900 pesos). Of the 5 we bought and tested, 1 of the 5 did not work properly, (it was obviously faulty due to converting all input voltages to 145VAC), but they replaced that one under warranty.

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I have been using them for more than 10 years and have had zero problems as a result. They cut out at either 90v or 135v. The smaller ones I use are rated for 1440w or 12A at 120v. The smaller ones, 3 years ago when I bought 2 additional ones, were about 375 pesos at Best in Guad. I use them for my washer/dryer, refrigerator, pumps, all my TVs individually and all other electronic equipment.

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There is a small electrical shop just east of Café Magana. Might be called Gonzalez. They will supply and install 8000 watt or 4000 watt ISM whole house regulators. As other posters have noted they do not protect against power surges but they do stabilize voltage. You will still need high quality surge protectors for all of you sensitive equipment.

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The vendor with the whole house regulators in stock is Electrica Variedades on Francia 1880 in Col Moderna. This is one block south of Ninos Heros at the monument of the same name and one block back east. tel (0133) 3810-8282. Walk in and take a number from the machine on the wall.

Remember that the regulators will only correct about 4-5 volts. That is not good enough in many areas around here.

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I'm not an expert on the subject of whole house voltage regulators. But I understand how the smaller regulators work these days. Those I have seen are step-up, step-down or do nothing transformers. And they would either step up or step down about 8 or 9% or do nothing. And only 9% may not be enough when the voltages are above 135 which I have often seen here in Mexico and is acceptable by Mexican standards

Standard voltage here in Mexico is not 110 to 120 volts but 127 volts plus or minus 10% and is three phase with each phase being 120 not 180 degrees out of phase with the other. Therefore when using 2 phases rather than getting twice the voltage like you do when you are 180 degrees out of phase with each other you get almost 87% thereof or 220 volts. Oh, often you may get only one or two of the three phases wired to your house.

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In 13 years, we have never used regulators, and have never lost an appliance. Regulators only adjust for small voltage fluctuations and do not protect against massive surges; those are the situations where damage may be done, as in a lightning strike at your house. Little else need be feared.

Repeat of post #2 with emphasis. Save your money.

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We have lost 47" TVs twice due to low voltage 75-90 volts. The transformer in the TV goes nuts trying to get to the correct voltage. We have only lost the off on function even though the TV was turned off, and that relay is easily replaced by a repair shop. This low voltage is is beyond the correctiion range of the WH Regulator. We have also lost one of the WH Regulators as it tried to raise the low voltage to 127 and it flashed and teh relay rattled for too long.

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I had the opposite problem. As I posted earlier, per Fed Regulations the CFE must provide power at 127 volts +/- 10%. Back in 2008 or 9, the transformer serving my neighborhood was set way too high and every night I was recording higher than 140 volts, usually 142 to 143 volts. So I borrowed some software programming and a voltage meter from a well known solar energy company connected it to the wiring as it entered the house before the fuse box and measured over several weeks, and recorded the fact that the neighborhood transformer was set a couple of steps too high.

We took the software printout to the CFE offices in Chapala and within a few days they sent a truck out and measured the power output at the neighborhood transformer, confirmed that what I had provided them was correct and stepped down the neighborhood transformer to a more acceptable level.

Oh, How did I protect my electronics during those days of too high voltage? I hooked up two voltage regulators in series. At 142 volts, the first regulator would drop the voltage by about 9% to about 129 volts and the second to about 118 volts.

Today because the neighborhood was out growing the transformer, they strung additional high voltage wires and added a new transformer 50 meters from the house and so far with not that many houses connected thereto the voltage almost never is more than 2 or 3 volts from the desired 127 voltage.

Luckily, these days, many of the products we purchase up north and bring down here are much more tolerant of voltage variances than they used to be. For example, my latest north of the border satellite receivers say they are operational between 100 and 240 volts. 10 to 15 years ago, they would say 110 to 120 volts or something like that

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  • 3 years later...

I have 2 ISB correctors for house and casita voltage regulation. They are a scam really and don't do what you want. As RVGringo writes "Regulators only adjust for small voltage fluctuations and do not protect against massive surges". For massive surges and brownouts you need totally different equipment.

 I use individual Exceline surge/brownout protectors for each device including my pool pump. We had to order them from Monterrey, MX.

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Most damages I have experienced here are #1 - surges coming in on the CFE distribution, #2 - motors overheated due to trying to run on low voltage (ie. brownouts), #3 faulty or non-existent earth grounds and neutral bonding at your main electrical panel where the power comes into your house. 

A voltage regulator that can shut down the output when the incoming voltage drops below a set point is a good protection against condition #1.

Whole house surge protectors at the incoming power to the panel and individual surge protectors on sensitive electronics (TV's, computers) are the best solution available for #2.  

The solution to #3 is to find a competent electrician here to check your wiring and possibly to an earth ground test.  Good luck with that!!

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Remember we do not have either 120 or 240 Volts down here. Our official single phase voltage is 127+/-10%  and because we have three phases, each phase is not 180 degrees apart which would double the voltage and give us 254 volts. Because each phase is 120 degrees out of phase with the other the two phase, using two phases gives us 220 volts

Now in answer to your question I have a common ground of three two meter metal rods under ground that feed my mostly whole house 2 of the 3 phases voltage and surge protector and battery backup photovoltaic solar system.

10 years ago when I ordered my solar system there were many more power outages than today. These days people normally don't get battery back, whole house systems

 

EDIT: I just reread all of the posts on this string, I repeated myself with basically the same information 3 or 4 times, Sorry, but I guess it was needed for one or 2. :)     Now I'm in trouble :) 

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I hate to hijack this thread but in Mexico, there are 3 problems:

1.  The AC is dirty.  By that I mean that instead of a nice sine wave, there are all kinds of other pulses that run on the line, especially if someone decides to hook up a welder in the neighborhood.  Regulators can't see or handle that problem.

2. Low voltage/brownouts.  Most modern electronics (TV, computers) will run down to 90 volts or so.  Motors take a beating as the voltage drops.  Regulators that will drop out totally around that point will protect the motors.  Either a whole house or individual regulators will protect from low voltage 

3. High voltage/surges.  There are two types.  The surge that happens when CFE restores power (up to 500 volts momentarily) and really high surges like lightning strikes.  Voltage regulators are pretty good about dropping out with the lower kind but useless with lightning strikes etc,  You need a surge protector to trap those.

I work on the web a lot and I want dependability.  I'm also an electrical engineer.  I also have a rather expensive computer setup.

I run the power through a regulator (about $20) then through an uninterruptible power supply that also has surge protection (about $100).  The result is a nice, clean, consistent power source.  In 9 years I've never had any problems.

I have lost a timer on the stove and a water pump, neither of which was protected.

I also have a TV with DVD player, etc that I have a regulator on and a power strip with surge protection.  I cut the whole thing off at the power strip when not in use.

My best advice for electronics (TV, cable boxes, satellite etc) is to buy a cheap power strip with a switch and surge protection and plug everything into it.  When it is not being used, cut the strip off.  Most modern electronics are not "off" when you cut them off, they go to standby.  

If the power goes off, cut everything off at the strip and wait 10 minutes after the power returns before switching it back on.  When CFE reconnects, I've seen voltage surges of 500vts or more and that will kill electronics in a heartbeat.

Just remember that you are living in Mexico, it's different here

 

 

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On 4/14/2014 at 10:18 AM, bmw1150rt said:

Interested in having a whole house voltage regulator installed for the protection of pool pump in addition to the house.

Who sells them locally any any advice about their use and installation would be appreciated.

Bill

Bill, I have had the Sola Brand whole house voltage regulators for 12 years. According to their manual they can correct only 4%-6%. They are 2 feet tall and a foot wide and weigh about 75 lbs Most appliances can live with the normal 4%-6% over/under voltage ok. . I have had voltage so bad It burned them out and I had them rebuilt. They were over $400 USD each and you need one for each line (2 regulators for 220VAC). Over the years our voltage has ranged from 70VAC to 188VAC. The low voltage eats computer boards and any other with a transformer. They just work themselves to death trying to get the correct voltage output. I would NOT buy them again if I had it to do over. You are trying to compensate for a bunch of clowns at CFE that don't know what they are doing..

A better choice is the new digital meters from CFE. The cut out if voltage is too low or two high. 

Don't forget to add a whole house surge protector at the breaker box and surge protection strips at the outlets. This will not work if your plugs are not truly grounded..

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