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posted by martyb on Sunday November 10 2019, @09:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the use-hurricane-lamps dept.

First, I debated whether to put this on stack exchange or here, but it seems like it is a tech question that suits this site fine.

Background
I have a room with a 115 V, 6000 BTU window AC unit plugged into one outlet. Then a bunch of electronics (~800 W measured) plugged into a 1500 VA, 900 W UPS plugged in to a second outlet across the room. Finally, I have two 50 W strands of Christmas lights in series (100 W total) I tried to plug into various outlets around the room.

Problem
The first problem is that whenever the room gets too hot, the compressor for the AC unit turns on and the Christmas lights will all flicker. This is not just an annoyance, because the first strand of lights I had in the room actually got burned out one by one, starting at the light closest to the wall outlet.

So I got another strand and was surprised to see the flickering happens even if they are plugged into the UPS (which does have an internal automatic voltage regulator). This made me concerned for the electronics plugged into the UPS, which includes a PC and monitors. However, I do not notice any flicker on the monitor when the compressor turns on. On the other hand, I have been getting some strange pc crashes lately (which would make some sense because only recently did it cool enough for the AC to not be running constantly) that may be related. This could also be due to installing a second gpu recently, etc though.

Questions
I have two main questions:

1) What is the best way to stop the flickering?
2) If the lights are flickering even when plugged into the UPS, should I also be concerned about the other electronics that are obviously also experiencing a momentary power reduction?

Some secondary questions:

3) Does it make sense to put another AVR between the UPS and the wall, eg something like this?

4) Is there something I can put between the AC unit and the wall to help?

5) This is a rental so I would prefer not to do any maintenance on the AC unit, but is this an issue you would report to the landlord?

Any ideas?


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by NPC-131072 on Monday November 11 2019, @03:28AM (4 children)

    by NPC-131072 (7144) on Monday November 11 2019, @03:28AM (#918816) Journal

    Oh gosh, agreed- NEVER grease contacts! That said, I bet someone has some kind of compound for contacts, but normal contact arcing would turn anything into quarks, muons, and neutrinos.

    Petroleum jelly melts off well before it catches fire. Read any manufacturer advice on isolator switches and it'll state PJ is preventative against arcing since it is non-conductive and gets smudged out of the way at the mechanical point of direct electrical contact.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @03:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @03:50AM (#918821)
  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday November 11 2019, @01:41PM

    by RS3 (6367) on Monday November 11 2019, @01:41PM (#918918)

    Thanks, that's very interesting. I tend to avoid risk, so I'd rather not put anything on the contacts which might leave a residue. But if it's helpful, I'll try it. But I'm curious- if it melts off, how is it helpful after the first contact?

  • (Score: 1) by Sally_G on Tuesday November 12 2019, @07:53AM (1 child)

    by Sally_G (8170) on Tuesday November 12 2019, @07:53AM (#919278)

    Read any manufacturer advice on isolator switches and it'll state PJ is preventative against arcing since it is non-conductive and gets smudged out of the way at the mechanical point of direct electrical contact.

      Many of us prefer to read the NEC.

    https://www.browntechnical.org/content/PDF/nec%202014.pdf [browntechnical.org]
    https://www.nfpa.org/Assets/files/AboutTheCodes/70/70-A2013-ROPDraft.pdf [nfpa.org]
    http://www.eng.usf.edu/~fehr/files/2008NEC.pdf [usf.edu]

      One day, I'll locate a current, online, searchable, version of the NFPA 70. Suffice to say that no searches yet have mentioned oiling, greasing, or otherwise lubricating an electrical contactor. Don't take that as an authoritative "NO" yet. The advice already given, to never lubricate electrical contact surfaces is sound advice. Petroleum jelly will supply fuel for a fire, and should not be found inside of an electrical cabinet.

    • (Score: 1) by Sally_G on Tuesday November 12 2019, @09:05AM

      by Sally_G (8170) on Tuesday November 12 2019, @09:05AM (#919293)

      310-9. Corrosive Conditions.
      Conductors exposed to oils,
      greases, vapors, gases, fumes, liquids, or other substances
      having a deleterious effect on the conductor or insulation
      shall be of a type suitable for the application.