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Does anyone here have a meter that measures AC frequency?


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It appears my solar system is not functioning right.  I have micro inverters.  There is some suspicion that the power frequency from CFE is off enough to make these shut down.  The voltage is within normal ranges.

Please PM if you have one and I could use it.  thanks.

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That would require an ocilloscope - right? CFE power is very "dirty", especially to residential. The biggest power users in Mexico are industrial, so they simply don't care. The people who installed your equipment should be able to check it out.

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If you can't find one Lakeside, the older "P3" version of the KILL A WATT electric power consumption meters could measure line frequency:

https://www.amazon.com.mx/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_3

Might be available on MercadoLibre, too...

I'm not at Lakeside at the moment, but my experience has been that CFE power consistently undershoots the 60-Hz standard (= underfrequency).

HTH,

 -- Don

 

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Yeah, just get a killAwatt they measure frequency no problem, lots of them around lakeside.

Funny side story, many many years ago when I was in metrology in Calif we were having no end of problems and the line checked out at 60CPS (in those days) and finally we discovered a big liquid Oxy plant down the road was causing the entire line to fluctuate at something like 5CPS which we found with an ocilloscope.

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My Kill A Watt meter plugs into a standard grounded plug found in the wall or floor. And gives an approximate AC rating of in my case from 59.9 to 60.0 KH. It does not show whether a circuit is in phase or not with another circuit or solar panel.

When I have a problem which has not been very often, I simply phone up my supplier Esun Energy.

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33 minutes ago, TelsZ4 said:

If the frequency was not 60Hz wouldn't it affect everyone ?. Motors would not run at the correct speed. Anyone with an audio turntable would notice it when they tried to play a record. Electric clocks would not keep the correct time... 


This sounds good,  but our friends at the power company describe how in the middle of the night, they'd look at the number of pulses (wave forms ) had been generated during the previous 23.5 hours,  and then temporarily goose the frequency up or down to give the correct total number of pulses to equal a 60 cycle per second average for the previous 24 hrs, keeping old school electric clocks (like ones with a 555 counter) constant & accurate on a daily basis.

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Most electric clocks now run off of internal oscillators.  When they actually ran off of 110vts, they depended on line frequency.

Today, oscillator chips are much cheaper than motors.

The frequency should be pretty stable since the MX grid is tied into the US grid.  MX sells power to southern US everyday in the summer.

 

 

 

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Didn't you ever wonder why there are so many battery powered clocks in MX? - well, thank you CFE, they screw with not only with slamming on/off, but frequency variations and I had several devices that were destroyed by that little trick. When they are off, or pull in another source they often don't match frequency and we get the results. Many things are not sensitive to frequency, but some are. Just as a general statement, in MX in 7 years, I lost 7 routers, 2 UPS regulators, 1 answering machine, 1 phone caller selector, paid $800MXD repair on a new home theater, 1 pump motor, and more. Since returning to TX 23 months ago - zip, nada. Plus my power is about $0.10 per KWH. And guess what, it's just electricity running down two wires to my house, no magic, nothing different than MX. So, you have to ask, why?

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  • I just know that for at least the last ten years, my electric clocks here in Mexico, loose a minute or two per month. Something that doesn't happen in places up north except for maybe the  Lake Buchanan Dam Area in Texas, Giltner68. (Only kidding) Lake Buchanan Dam Area
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Well it appears CFE has fried my micro inverters at least the monitoring part and Solar Technology is going to replace them all with units that are supposedly more robust and can take more CFE abuse.  So that is good news and I appreciate very much their stepping up to the plate and getting this done.

The current units are Swiss designed, trouble is that CFE sure isn't. :D

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  • 1 year later...
On 8/13/2016 at 6:39 PM, giltner68 said:

Didn't you ever wonder why there are so many battery powered clocks in MX? - well, thank you CFE, they screw with not only with slamming on/off, but frequency variations and I had several devices that were destroyed by that little trick. When they are off, or pull in another source they often don't match frequency and we get the results. Many things are not sensitive to frequency, but some are. Just as a general statement, in MX in 7 years, I lost 7 routers, 2 UPS regulators, 1 answering machine, 1 phone caller selector, paid $800MXD repair on a new home theater, 1 pump motor, and more. Since returning to TX 23 months ago - zip, nada. Plus my power is about $0.10 per KWH. And guess what, it's just electricity running down two wires to my house, no magic, nothing different than MX. So, you have to ask, why?

Interesting. I've been living lakeside for 15 years, and I've never lost anything to the darstadly deeds of the CFE....

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2 hours ago, Curmudgeon said:

Interesting. I've been living lakeside for 15 years, and I've never lost anything to the darstadly deeds of the CFE....

Been in Mexico for 21 years and I've never lost anything to the dastardly deeds of the CFE. KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!

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