Electrical question


While playing music I noticed my amp fell from 120 volts to 112 when the wife turned the microwave on…they must be on the same circuit..is that going to damage anything?…

charles007100

Showing 1 response by cleeds

our over the range microwave/ hood vent fan unit is rated at 17.7KW. 1700W / 120v = 14.17 amps. My 200A electrical service doesn’t even care when it’s running. My central air outdoors condensing unit draws more than that at 240V. Even that load is minuscule to my 200 amp electrical service. 

Having "200 amp electric service" is not necessarily what many people think it is. It means that the utility line coming into your house and the panel it feeds are capable of safely distributing 200 amps. It is no assurance at all that the utility can actually deliver 200 amps of power. 

I had enormous electric service problems when we bought our house. A voltage monitor installed by the electric utility showed that turning on my tube amp brought voltage to zero. Lights dimmed with even moderate loads, such as the dryer. I finally got the utility to run a "beast of burden" test - where a dummy load is connected directly to the utility's feed - and I was getting about 55A. The engineer working on our problem (which also included periods of low voltage) thought that was only slightly on the low side! In the end, it was easier for him to resolve the problem than deal with my incessant complaints filed with the state regulator.

To be fair, I have an especially poor electric utility, although its service quality has improved enormously over the decades. But I'll never forget the frustration of trying to amplify a biamped Infinity RS-1B speaker system with substandard electric power.