ISO 9001 : 2015
In India power supply is erratic at most places frequently with voltage fluctuating in up and down both the direction. These voltage fluctuations can damage appliances and cause them to end much before their normal useful life. Electric current in the appliance increase when voltage goes down which can result in burning of the appliance. Thus in India Voltage Stabilizers have found place in many homes and offices. We will discuss about voltage stabilizers: how much power do they consume, what they do and how to select one for your setup in this article.
What are voltage Fluctuations and why do the happen in your home?
Voltage fluctuations are changes increase or decrease in voltage coming to your home that make the lights glow brighter for high voltage and dimmer for low voltage than normal depending. Typically for most of the appliances they are not dangerous but they may damage appliances with motors and then they certainly vary the output of the appliance.
Reasons for Voltage Fluctuations in your home:
Voltage Fluctuations typically happen because of overload (your neighbors using more or be it you using more power than your sanctioned load), bad wirings (to your house or inside the house), short circuits or sudden switching on of high powered appliances (like air conditioners, motor). Do check for any of these reasons whenever you experience voltage fluctuations.
What are voltage stabilizers and how do they fix voltage fluctuations?
Voltage stabilizers stabilize the voltage as the name suggests. It brings it to the desired range if the supply voltage fluctuates or varies. By using electromagnetic regulators it does so that use taps changers with autotransformers. To change the transformer to move the voltage in acceptable range if the output voltage is not in range a mechanism switches the tap. It operates the system in a safe voltage range but does not give a constant voltage output.
How to choose a right sized stabilizer?
Sizing of a UPS or Inverter is very similar to sizing of a stabilizer. The load connected to the stabilizer is the most important thing is to know. First you must note down the power that will be connected to a stabilizer for all the appliances. The sum total of the power consumption (or watts) will give you the load in watts on stabilizer. But most stabilizer sizes are in VA or kVA (kilo Volt Ampere which is equal to 1000 Volt Ampere). You will have to do some measurements although to get to actual VA (or Volt Ampere) from Watts. You can increase the Watts value by 20% to give a rough approximation% to get the approximate VA size that you may need.
So for e.g. you can take a 1200 VA or 1.2 kVA stabilizer if sum of watts connected to your stabilizer is 1000. Please note that 20% is not work in industries, is suitable for residential systems.
Important things to note for before buying a voltage stabilizer:
The most important thing that you should make note of before buying a voltage stabilizer is the input voltage range that you get in your house. The output voltage can stabilize because every stabilizer has a minimum and maximum input voltage to which it can stabilize. The stabilizer will just cut off the power supply to your appliance if the voltage in your house goes below 150 V or more than 260 V then if a voltage stabilizer has input voltage range of 150 V (min) – 260 V (max). It will try to stabilize it to the desired output voltage range if it is 160 V or 250 V (within the working range. Eprompt Enterprise is reputed name in Bharuch for Manufacturing of Stabilizer or Servo Stabilizer.