250V! Any harm to the equipment?

Hi, i wonder if the voltage supply to our house rated at 250V, will it be any harm to the equipments operate rated at 220V or 240V?

In long run, will the equipment components being deteriorate quicker than normal?

All of your advises are welcome. Thanks in advance.

last wednesday at centre circle audio, the isotek m.d. told me that hi fi components are designed to operate at plus minus 10 per cent of the rated voltage.

since he's the expert, we just have to trust him.

his products - isotek power conditioners - do not have voltage stabilisers cos he told me these stabilisers can make things worse.

The question is..are we getting 250V constant - 235-245V
It can swing depending on the load and various timing..

Add in resistance of your sockets and the wiring of the apartment + shared load of the condo/flat/house..

It is very true our Malaysian reference Voltage and Frequency of our household is rated at 240VAC 50Hz.
I hope my 30 years in Power Generation would be helpful. Most of our household electrical appliances including audio amplifiers could easily take the abuse of within the +/- 10% voltage difference. Any change in dip or overvoltage of the main utility supply will not affect the Frequency, ie 50Hz.
It will remain 50Hz.
Main Power Providers spend millions of dollars/ringgit to just maintain a correct frequency.
It is their priority for everyone's interest to receive our main electrical supply at 50Hz.
That goes to show how to challenge in term of Accuracy of Frequency (pure Sine Wave, 50Hz) , when we have a RM20k Automatic Power Conditioner.
Any change in Frequency like 55Hz can cause your ceiling fan to spin faster.

The following tell us more about not just our Main Voltage, in Malaysia and also other countries.

http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm[url][/url]

Singapore is having a 230VAC 50Hz instead of 240VAC 50Hzm when refer to the World Voltage Website.

Since 2006, Malaysia's power supply was officially declared to be 230v +10 - 6%. Though you won't see any changes in the volt meter because they are still within the +10 - 6 accepted variance in PS. Our supply frequency stands at +-2%. Most equipment should performance with 20V +-without problem except for heat and mechanical hum related issues (on some with huge transformer).

Thank you for pointing out the mistake for our standard household voltage. But I could only see the Frequency is 50Hz +/-1% in their official page:

http://www.tnb.com.my/business/for-housing-developers-electrical-contractors/tnb-electricity-system.html

If you think your voltage is abnormal (on the high side) and think it may damage your equipment, just contact TNB, lodge a complaint and I'm very sure they'll investigate and report back to you. If you're a technical person and can back up any evidence of abnormaly with your own measurements, thats even better to assist them in any investigation or remedial measures on their part.

How to check?
I don't think the man on the streets have th equipment to do all the measurements.

Theaudiohub wrote:How to check?
I don't think the man on the streets have th equipment to do all the measurements.

Sanwa digital meter, (RM120??) easily gotten at Pasar Rd shops. It can also measure AC frequency. You can measure at different times of the day, for a given period and compile your data for TNB to consider. AFAIK, TNB would be armed with industry standard AC current and voltmeters for general measurement. There's no rocket science in this. I've known some audio enthusiasts and DIY'ers at Low Yat net forum happen to own FLUKE digital multimeters for their own use.. Yes, these meters cost an arm an leg.

Yup, get a multimeter. Or go the expensive route and get a Purepower power regen. Got a 217 Volt 49.9Hz reading from the A/C mains last night but output to my gear was a steady 230V 50Hz.

Could that mean that if anyone doubt their incoming supply should invest some form of power stabilizer or regenerator OR (if unlucky with inconsitent power) the system will likely fall short on performance or risk possible damage? OR just act ignorant and accept it as fate. Yup..up to owner to decide the next course of action.

It's a very tricky decision to make. Power regenerators are not cheap! But if you take that plunge two things are very likely to happen. One, you will hear the difference and two, unless you are financially well off, you're bound to be broke for a good while.

But then again it would also depend on your system. I've heard systems with no regenerators, filters and such and these are superb sounding. And unless you suffer some serious power surge it's unlikely your equipment will get damaged by 250volts.

and one more thing. 230 Volts sounds better to my ears than 240 volts. I have not heard 250 volts so I can't comment on that.

chewkwokhon wrote:... But I could only see the Frequency is 50Hz +/-1% in their official page:

Very interesting. They seem to have changed from 2% to 1%. Technically, load shedding starts at 0.5Hz dip. Most computer grade power conditioners only can do 3% which is good enough. The MES is silent about it.

bimmerman wrote:and one more thing. 230 Volts sounds better to my ears than 240 volts. I have not heard 250 volts so I can't comment on that.

The problem is some equipments are made for 230V and some for 240V. Some would just put 230V label on a 240V equipments and vice versa. Some are very specific and tap the transformer correctly for 220, 230 or 240V. I am usually drowned in music to notice the sound difference due to a 10V changes.

I believe the best investment in hifi audio is room acoustics and steady clean power. Both has been discarded and under rated for more far flung tweaks and charms in the audio marketing world.

These 2 are the constant in the sea of variables as it is basic physics.
These two can be readily measured and finessed once and for all without much hassle compared to changing the components.

But it takes time, effort and alot of patience.. but once you get it right then i believe anything will sound good or better.

Agreed but actually there's 3. Acoustics, Power and you left out Equiptment support/Damping.

Measuring mains supply requires a true rms voltmeter i.e a flukemeter. Other low cost digital meter will not show true rms reading even with the Sanwa RM120 one except for their expansive models. Most of the time i will encounter problems from made in China equipment with transformer rating of 220Vac and used against our 240Vac mains supply. This will lead to premature death of transformer and bulging capacitors in the circuit. No surprise if the equipment fails in a short span.