On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 09:21:40AM +0200, Philipp Pap via cctalk wrote: [...] > I think that I’m responsible for the dead, as the plotter stood in an attic > for 20 years, meanwhile power was raised from 220 to 230v (+-10%) in Europe.
If it helps, the failure probably wasn't caused by the voltage being too high. The EU voltage "harmonisation" was mostly a paper exercise. It is way too expensive to rebuild the entire transmission infrastructure to adjust the voltage, so the standard[0] just fiddled with the error bars and set it at 230v +10% -6%. This covers both older 220v and 240v standards, and everybody can proceed as before without changing anything. The only real effect I observed is that dodgy British power distribution companies can sweat their assets more and let the voltage sag further in the extremeties of their network than they were previously allowed. Your internal wiring can reduce the voltage further. I had one place where there was over an ohm in the way, and firing up a 13A device brought the mains down to about 210v. I shudder to think where the I^2R heat went. [0] I think it's (BS) EN 50160, but I don't have the means to check right now.
