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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 11:12:25 GMT -6
So I know there's a lot of exaggerated claims around power conditioners and I've read all the relevant threads I can find. Here is what I'm experiencing, hoping that some of the resident experts ( svart , ericn , others) can point me in the right direction whether that is some sort of so-called conditioner or just "deal with it man, buying stuff won't solve it." First the limitations. The room I'm talking about here is one that I'm renting from a larger building so I have zero ability to change wiring or anything like that. We've got what we've got for better or for worse, and it's definitely for worse when it comes to power. This building has some very old and odd wiring that is made worse by construction in finishing the rooms that made some mistakes in circuits. For example, for a long time turning off the lights in the lobby also turned off the circuit that was on one wall of my studio. That has been fixed but it's just one example of how wonky this is. Bullet point problems... 1) Radio frequency interference. Industrial area. At times my monitors are basically like radios. I don't often have them on (I don't mix here) but it is surely impacting other gear, right? This is the most RFI I've experienced since I tried to record in a 100 year old apartment in a major city. It's legit. Weirdly it doesn't seem to impact my wireless headphone transmitter. Odd. 2) Random pops and buzzes. They show up and then go away. It's not super frequent but it's frequent enough that I have to listen for it to make sure takes aren't ruined. In a four hour session it wouldn't be uncommon for a random "POP" or even a multi-second crackle to ruin a take. I'm guessing this is surges? 3) On the other hand, we also get occasional brown outs. This is less common but it happens once every few sessions. Not enough for gear to switch off, but enough that you get electrical noise when the brown out ends. Also enough to make me nervous about my gear. So right now I've just got a big ol' heavy duty wall mounted power strip with smaller strips attached to it for my rack gear. I've got amps and stuff (not many, only two usually) as well as lights and my computer power going into a separate strip on the same circuit. I have a mini-fridge and a printer going into the circuit that used to be attached to the lobby cuz I still don't trust that one. Are there devices that will make a difference here? Or do I just need to accept the fate of a renter only leasing one room? |
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Post by noob on Jan 29, 2024 11:25:08 GMT -6
Just wondering - What kind of power conditioner are you currently using?
I work and live in a pretty old building and Furmans seem to work great for me.
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 11:26:09 GMT -6
Just wondering - What kind of power conditioner are you currently using? None at this place. I have a pair of Furman's in my mix room but that room doesn't really have any power problems so I've never been sure if the Furmans are anything more than expensive power strips. So for now I'm just using those heavy duty consumer power strips you can get at Home Depot. |
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Post by noob on Jan 29, 2024 11:27:37 GMT -6
Just wondering - What kind of power conditioner are you currently using? None at this place. I have a pair of Furman's in my mix room but that room doesn't really have any power problems. So for now I'm just using those heavy duty consumer power strips you can get at Home Depot. Oh damn, yeah I'm not an expert but I would definitely get some Furmans in that place. Sounds like you have a lot of surges going on, a Furman would likely help a lot with that. Again, not an electrical expert, but it definitely wouldn't hurt. I'd wait for more people to chime in though. |
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Post by stratboy on Jan 29, 2024 11:31:40 GMT -6
I’m not an electrician. Over the years I have had very good experiences with Furman power gear. In this case, if I were you, I would isolate your entire system from the building with this: furmanpower.com/product/discrete-symmetrical-power-filter-15-amp/An expensive investment, but as a renter, it has the advantage of being portable. You can take it to your next space knowing that your gear will have clean power whatever the building power is doing. PS. There’s been lots of back and forth over whether symmetric power makes a difference in sound quality. This is not about that. It’s simply to completely isolate your system from the building. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 11:32:08 GMT -6
None at this place. I have a pair of Furman's in my mix room but that room doesn't really have any power problems. So for now I'm just using those heavy duty consumer power strips you can get at Home Depot. Oh damn, yeah I'm not an expert but I would definitely get some Furmans in that place. Sounds like you have a lot of surges going on, a Furman would likely help a lot with that. Again, not an electrical expert, but it definitely wouldn't hurt. I'd wait for more people to chime in though. That's the reason for this thread, it seems like it's time to invest here but I'm just never sure what this stuff actually does. For example, some of the consumer stuff seems to only protect against the first surge, but so does some of the pro-sumer stuff? Not even sure what to look for really. |
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Post by noob on Jan 29, 2024 11:37:33 GMT -6
Like I said, someone more knowledgeable can probably tell you more, but I will just speak from experience here: I have a few Middle Atlantic Rackmount power conditioners that work great. I also have a few smaller Furman SS-6B strips. I'm in a very old building and never had any power issues here, knock on wood. I don't know *exactly* what the higher end power conditioners do, but I just know they work. Before I invested in power conditioners, at my old spot, maybe 7-8 years ago, I would have all types of power issues. Can't say correlation is causation, but my experience tells me that they do seem to offer a more steady voltage and suppress any type of surges that happen much better than your average consumer product.
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 11:37:48 GMT -6
The good news is it's only $2,500... [faints] |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 11:41:24 GMT -6
Like I said, someone more knowledgeable can probably tell you more, but I will just speak from experience here: I have a few Middle Atlantic Rackmount power conditioners that work great. I also have a few smaller Furman SS-6B strips. I'm in a very old building and never had any power issues here, knock on wood. I don't know *exactly* what the higher end power conditioners do, but I just know they work. Before I invested in power conditioners, at my old spot, maybe 7-8 years ago, I would have all types of power issues. Can't say correlation is causation, but my experience tells me that they do seem to offer a more steady voltage and suppress any type of surges that happen much better than your average consumer product. To be fair, the room at my house with "no power issues" has also always had everything running through a pair of Furman M-8Dx's. So kind of like you I don't know if that's why I have no issues or if the house is just well constructed with reasonably well planned circuits or if those Furmans are doing anything. |
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Post by ericn on Jan 29, 2024 11:52:59 GMT -6
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Post by subspace on Jan 29, 2024 11:53:05 GMT -6
I'm mixing in a theater within a shopping complex and the house power can be dicey when the HVAC load is strained. I was mixing on an X32 feeding old iron amps and the system was reliable, but when I added an ethernet snake box I started to get loud pops at random infrequent intervals. Went to the local office store and grabbed a UPS, plugged the new remote snake box into the battery output on the UPS and never had another random noise. Started to get some wireless DMX dropouts so I tried the same solution for the DMX transmitter, it's been rock solid since. Seems like the switching supplies on these lightweight, low consumption devices leave very little margin for voltage fluctuation. I had a switcher amp that used to drop-out on that same wall power and I replaced it with old, heavy linear amps that handle the voltage fluctuations gracefully.
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Post by lowlou on Jan 29, 2024 11:53:45 GMT -6
A variac transformer could help evening out the current you receive. Place it prior to a good Furman (in Europe that would be the PL-PRO DM C E), set it at the nominal value of your country. This will make the whole system perform better, it will protect your gear a bit more (not against thunder though). It's kinda cheap, too (the variac).
Instead of an variac + PL-PRO DM C E, you could buy the most expensive Furman, they will do the exact same job as the duo described above (in Europe that would be the (30+A !!) P-6900 AR E for a big home studio, or the cheaper (6A...) P-1400 AR E for a smaller home studio)
If you can, triphase installation is the best for audio. But if you rent it's not really an option.
The middle range Furman can only do so much. If your location receives too much or not enough current, then you really need an variac before it, so that your studio does not suffer from sag or too generous power distribution. In europe power distribution varies a lot, depending on the location. Maybe not where you live. Please cross examine everything I say with other sources, I'm not an expert at all.
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 12:00:50 GMT -6
I'll grab one of these at Home Depot and do this tonight. I can probably get my landlords to do some work if there is straight up faulty wiring (as opposed to just old building). |
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Post by svart on Jan 29, 2024 12:02:22 GMT -6
So I know there's a lot of exaggerated claims around power conditioners and I've read all the relevant threads I can find. Here is what I'm experiencing, hoping that some of the resident experts ( svart , ericn , others) can point me in the right direction whether that is some sort of so-called conditioner or just "deal with it man, buying stuff won't solve it." First the limitations. The room I'm talking about here is one that I'm renting from a larger building so I have zero ability to change wiring or anything like that. We've got what we've got for better or for worse, and it's definitely for worse when it comes to power. This building has some very old and odd wiring that is made worse by construction in finishing the rooms that made some mistakes in circuits. For example, for a long time turning off the lights in the lobby also turned off the circuit that was on one wall of my studio. That has been fixed but it's just one example of how wonky this is. Bullet point problems... 1) Radio frequency interference. Industrial area. At times my monitors are basically like radios. I don't often have them on (I don't mix here) but it is surely impacting other gear, right? This is the most RFI I've experienced since I tried to record in a 100 year old apartment in a major city. It's legit. Weirdly it doesn't seem to impact my wireless headphone transmitter. Odd. 2) Random pops and buzzes. They show up and then go away. It's not super frequent but it's frequent enough that I have to listen for it to make sure takes aren't ruined. In a four hour session it wouldn't be uncommon for a random "POP" or even a multi-second crackle to ruin a take. I'm guessing this is surges? 3) On the other hand, we also get occasional brown outs. This is less common but it happens once every few sessions. Not enough for gear to switch off, but enough that you get electrical noise when the brown out ends. Also enough to make me nervous about my gear. So right now I've just got a big ol' heavy duty wall mounted power strip with smaller strips attached to it for my rack gear. I've got amps and stuff (not many, only two usually) as well as lights and my computer power going into a separate strip on the same circuit. I have a mini-fridge and a printer going into the circuit that used to be attached to the lobby cuz I still don't trust that one. Are there devices that will make a difference here? Or do I just need to accept the fate of a renter only leasing one room? 1: RFI isn't necessarily RF frequencies that are getting into your gear. At some point they need to be down-converted to audio frequencies to be, well, audible. Honestly there's a thousand ways this might happen. It could be happening IN the gear, or it could be happening in the wiring of the building. My best guess is that it's poor grounding with possible corrosion somewhere. Corrosion causes currents to flow through oxides which act like diodes and can end up creating a rudimentary mixer of sorts that mixes the line frequency with whatever the RF frequency is.. Again, it's possible but who knows if that's what's happening here. 2: Probably not. Power surges (fast enough not to be considered a brown out) would probably be filtered out through the power supplies, especially in the case of SMPS devices which are mostly isolated from input to output. Best guess is grounding, again. Unfortunately, if grounding is compromised, then nothing can fix the rest. 3: Not much can be done here unless you put everything on UPS units, but then you might start getting other types of noise since most UPS units are square wave outputs. "True Sine" or "Pure Sine" type outputs are available, but you'd need to make sure that you're buying a good one because a "Modified Sine" output will likely be comprised of smaller voltage steps. The other issue is that when it switches from AC to battery, it WILL likely pop and click as everything switches over. A computer doesn't care much but audio gear might. The vast majority of "power conditioners" are just fitted with RF filters and minimal surge protection. Using a "balanced power conditioner" usually just adds a large 1:1 transformer to isolate the Line and Neutral outputs from the input and float them so that the neutral is no longer tied to safety Ground directly. The large transformer will add a degree of filtering (acting like a large inductor). An "isolated power conditioner" will essentially be the same thing. Do you know of any machinery being used elsewhere in the building? Lots of machinery will use power-factoring to maintain performance, but it will cause a lot of noise on power lines and grounds when it starts and stops. |
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Post by ericn on Jan 29, 2024 12:06:25 GMT -6
I'll grab one of these at Home Depot and do this tonight. I can probably get my landlords to do some work if there is straight up faulty wiring (as opposed to just old building). That was my hope, the other thing is when you use it watch for conditions shifting from one state of condition to another; sometimes this is an easy fix, shut off the breaker pull the outlets and tighten down all the screw’s securing wire. Also get a look at what amperage the breaker for your circuit(s) are. |
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Post by svart on Jan 29, 2024 12:06:58 GMT -6
For example, the standard power conditioner is below. The board in the center is a filter with some transient protection:  The example below is a "balanced" or "isolated" conditioner with a large isolating toroid transformer:  |
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Post by stratboy on Jan 29, 2024 12:12:33 GMT -6
The good news is it's only $2,500... [faints] Yes. I’d look for used but also keep in mind that if you have to move a couple more times over the course of your career, it’s an investment in stability. Also there may be less expensive options than the Furman. |
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Post by doubledog on Jan 29, 2024 15:56:24 GMT -6
I've got a pretty run of the mill (Amazon Basics) UPS (uninterrupted power supply) holding up my computer, displays, and interface (but not the outboard or monitors). I don't seem to have any noise issues and the other day I was tracking the drums and all of the sudden the lights started to flicker (and then went out). I was able to scoot over to the computer, save the session, and start to shut down Pro Tools by the time the power came back on. The only thing I lost was right when the power went out (lots of farty audio as the power drained out of my 500 preamps...). I liked what I was doing, so I waited a few minutes to make sure the power was stable again, then backed up, punched in and kept going. Mine is only a small 400VA unit and it worked fine. www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Standby-UPS-400VA-Outlets/dp/B073Q48Z95/I've used this (for my father's dialysis machine because he kept losing power... what a nightmare) and it saved the day (Walmart carries them for a similar price). It's a bigger capacity and many of these (like I believe this one ) will reshape the incoming sine wave (see "AVR") and give a clean output. www.amazon.com/APC-Battery-Protector-BackUPS-BX1500M/dp/B06VY6FXMM/To me it's worth trying for $200. Walmart and Amazon have pretty easy return policies if it doesn't help your situation. (hey I just realized we don't live too far from one another...) |
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Post by ericn on Jan 29, 2024 16:44:33 GMT -6
I've got a pretty run of the mill (Amazon Basics) UPS (uninterrupted power supply) holding up my computer, displays, and interface (but not the outboard or monitors). I don't seem to have any noise issues and the other day I was tracking the drums and all of the sudden the lights started to flicker (and then went out). I was able to scoot over to the computer, save the session, and start to shut down Pro Tools by the time the power came back on. The only thing I lost was right when the power went out (lots of farty audio as the power drained out of my 500 preamps...). I liked what I was doing, so I waited a few minutes to make sure the power was stable again, then backed up, punched in and kept going. Mine is only a small 400VA unit and it worked fine. www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Standby-UPS-400VA-Outlets/dp/B073Q48Z95/I've used this (for my father's dialysis machine because he kept losing power... what a nightmare) and it saved the day (Walmart carries them for a similar price). It's a bigger capacity and many of these (like I believe this one ) will reshape the incoming sine wave (see "AVR") and give a clean output. www.amazon.com/APC-Battery-Protector-BackUPS-BX1500M/dp/B06VY6FXMM/To me it's worth trying for $200. Walmart and Amazon have pretty easy return policies if it doesn't help your situation. (hey I just realized we don't live too far from one another...) Your right $200 is a pretty cheap solution if it works, but like SAVART my hunch is it’s the ground, something a UPS won’t correct. This is why I suggest looking at the wiring with a $5.00 outlet tester. If he diagnoses a wiring issue, it’s not really a matter of if the landlord will fix it, it’s more of does the OP have the stones to look at his landlord and say “ well this isn’t up to code or safe, would you like me to call the electrical inspector?”. A UPS may absolutely be the solution to some of his problems, but making sure the basic infrastructure is right so it can solve the problems it is designed to is going to go far further. |
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Post by doubledog on Jan 29, 2024 16:59:32 GMT -6
totally agree that if the electrical is wired wrong/poorly then there is only one solution. UPS also probably won't fix an EMI/RFI issue. I was simply sharing my experience and that is that a UPS works well for me in my studio. as always YMMV.
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 17:10:51 GMT -6
So I know there's a lot of exaggerated claims around power conditioners and I've read all the relevant threads I can find. Here is what I'm experiencing, hoping that some of the resident experts ( svart , ericn , others) can point me in the right direction whether that is some sort of so-called conditioner or just "deal with it man, buying stuff won't solve it." First the limitations. The room I'm talking about here is one that I'm renting from a larger building so I have zero ability to change wiring or anything like that. We've got what we've got for better or for worse, and it's definitely for worse when it comes to power. This building has some very old and odd wiring that is made worse by construction in finishing the rooms that made some mistakes in circuits. For example, for a long time turning off the lights in the lobby also turned off the circuit that was on one wall of my studio. That has been fixed but it's just one example of how wonky this is. Bullet point problems... 1) Radio frequency interference. Industrial area. At times my monitors are basically like radios. I don't often have them on (I don't mix here) but it is surely impacting other gear, right? This is the most RFI I've experienced since I tried to record in a 100 year old apartment in a major city. It's legit. Weirdly it doesn't seem to impact my wireless headphone transmitter. Odd. 2) Random pops and buzzes. They show up and then go away. It's not super frequent but it's frequent enough that I have to listen for it to make sure takes aren't ruined. In a four hour session it wouldn't be uncommon for a random "POP" or even a multi-second crackle to ruin a take. I'm guessing this is surges? 3) On the other hand, we also get occasional brown outs. This is less common but it happens once every few sessions. Not enough for gear to switch off, but enough that you get electrical noise when the brown out ends. Also enough to make me nervous about my gear. So right now I've just got a big ol' heavy duty wall mounted power strip with smaller strips attached to it for my rack gear. I've got amps and stuff (not many, only two usually) as well as lights and my computer power going into a separate strip on the same circuit. I have a mini-fridge and a printer going into the circuit that used to be attached to the lobby cuz I still don't trust that one. Are there devices that will make a difference here? Or do I just need to accept the fate of a renter only leasing one room? 1: RFI isn't necessarily RF frequencies that are getting into your gear. At some point they need to be down-converted to audio frequencies to be, well, audible. Honestly there's a thousand ways this might happen. It could be happening IN the gear, or it could be happening in the wiring of the building. My best guess is that it's poor grounding with possible corrosion somewhere. Corrosion causes currents to flow through oxides which act like diodes and can end up creating a rudimentary mixer of sorts that mixes the line frequency with whatever the RF frequency is.. Again, it's possible but who knows if that's what's happening here. 2: Probably not. Power surges (fast enough not to be considered a brown out) would probably be filtered out through the power supplies, especially in the case of SMPS devices which are mostly isolated from input to output. Best guess is grounding, again. Unfortunately, if grounding is compromised, then nothing can fix the rest. 3: Not much can be done here unless you put everything on UPS units, but then you might start getting other types of noise since most UPS units are square wave outputs. "True Sine" or "Pure Sine" type outputs are available, but you'd need to make sure that you're buying a good one because a "Modified Sine" output will likely be comprised of smaller voltage steps. The other issue is that when it switches from AC to battery, it WILL likely pop and click as everything switches over. A computer doesn't care much but audio gear might. The vast majority of "power conditioners" are just fitted with RF filters and minimal surge protection. Using a "balanced power conditioner" usually just adds a large 1:1 transformer to isolate the Line and Neutral outputs from the input and float them so that the neutral is no longer tied to safety Ground directly. The large transformer will add a degree of filtering (acting like a large inductor). An "isolated power conditioner" will essentially be the same thing. Do you know of any machinery being used elsewhere in the building? Lots of machinery will use power-factoring to maintain performance, but it will cause a lot of noise on power lines and grounds when it starts and stops. Hilariousy the power went out in my house just after receiving this reply. You can't make this stuff up. This is good advice. I'm going to be testing the outlets for grounding issues as soon as I can grab a testing unit. But let's assume grounding is the problem as it very well could be. Would an "isolated power conditioner" improve that by isolating the ground? And in answer to your last question, the one good thing is that the building is only used for rehearsal spaces and usually nobody else is there when I'm there. So what's running is HVAC, lots of security cameras, a motion sensor on the front door (about 50' away), and a wifi router that's about 25' away. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 17:17:50 GMT -6
For example, the standard power conditioner is below. The board in the center is a filter with some transient protection: View AttachmentThe example below is a "balanced" or "isolated" conditioner with a large isolating toroid transformer: View AttachmentOk yeah, that visual really helps. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 17:24:29 GMT -6
I've got a pretty run of the mill (Amazon Basics) UPS (uninterrupted power supply) holding up my computer, displays, and interface (but not the outboard or monitors). I don't seem to have any noise issues and the other day I was tracking the drums and all of the sudden the lights started to flicker (and then went out). I was able to scoot over to the computer, save the session, and start to shut down Pro Tools by the time the power came back on. The only thing I lost was right when the power went out (lots of farty audio as the power drained out of my 500 preamps...). I liked what I was doing, so I waited a few minutes to make sure the power was stable again, then backed up, punched in and kept going. Mine is only a small 400VA unit and it worked fine. www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Standby-UPS-400VA-Outlets/dp/B073Q48Z95/I've used this (for my father's dialysis machine because he kept losing power... what a nightmare) and it saved the day (Walmart carries them for a similar price). It's a bigger capacity and many of these (like I believe this one ) will reshape the incoming sine wave (see "AVR") and give a clean output. www.amazon.com/APC-Battery-Protector-BackUPS-BX1500M/dp/B06VY6FXMM/To me it's worth trying for $200. Walmart and Amazon have pretty easy return policies if it doesn't help your situation. (hey I just realized we don't live too far from one another...) We certainly do! In fact, my tracking room is in Round Rock. Shoot me a PM, I have a guy who needs your services. Good songwriter with an awful drummer who ruins all his demos. Sorry but it's true. An anonymous performance with zero ego threat to his live gigging guy is PRECISELY what he needs. |
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jan 29, 2024 18:03:44 GMT -6
1: RFI isn't necessarily RF frequencies that are getting into your gear. At some point they need to be down-converted to audio frequencies to be, well, audible. Honestly there's a thousand ways this might happen. It could be happening IN the gear, or it could be happening in the wiring of the building. My best guess is that it's poor grounding with possible corrosion somewhere. Corrosion causes currents to flow through oxides which act like diodes and can end up creating a rudimentary mixer of sorts that mixes the line frequency with whatever the RF frequency is.. Again, it's possible but who knows if that's what's happening here. 2: Probably not. Power surges (fast enough not to be considered a brown out) would probably be filtered out through the power supplies, especially in the case of SMPS devices which are mostly isolated from input to output. Best guess is grounding, again. Unfortunately, if grounding is compromised, then nothing can fix the rest. 3: Not much can be done here unless you put everything on UPS units, but then you might start getting other types of noise since most UPS units are square wave outputs. "True Sine" or "Pure Sine" type outputs are available, but you'd need to make sure that you're buying a good one because a "Modified Sine" output will likely be comprised of smaller voltage steps. The other issue is that when it switches from AC to battery, it WILL likely pop and click as everything switches over. A computer doesn't care much but audio gear might. The vast majority of "power conditioners" are just fitted with RF filters and minimal surge protection. Using a "balanced power conditioner" usually just adds a large 1:1 transformer to isolate the Line and Neutral outputs from the input and float them so that the neutral is no longer tied to safety Ground directly. The large transformer will add a degree of filtering (acting like a large inductor). An "isolated power conditioner" will essentially be the same thing. Do you know of any machinery being used elsewhere in the building? Lots of machinery will use power-factoring to maintain performance, but it will cause a lot of noise on power lines and grounds when it starts and stops. Hilariousy the power went out in my house just after receiving this reply. You can't make this stuff up. This is good advice. I'm going to be testing the outlets for grounding issues as soon as I can grab a testing unit. But let's assume grounding is the problem as it very well could be. Would an "isolated power conditioner" improve that by isolating the ground? And in answer to your last question, the one good thing is that the building is only used for rehearsal spaces and usually nobody else is there when I'm there. So what's running is HVAC, lots of security cameras, a motion sensor on the front door (about 50' away), and a wifi router that's about 25' away. The only real cure for grounding issues is a decent ground, depending on age of building it would in way suprise me if some did what we in Galveston referred to as “ an Island complete re wire”, this where someone replaces all the Metal outlet boxes with plastic and all the 2 prong outlets with 3 and the ground just hangs. The bad news, HVAC is one of the worst sources of problems, that and restaurant equipment and if someone has an old school fluorescent tube light grow house. Oh yeah if the space has fluorescent even the compact fluorescent bulbs get rid of them. Also and this is one that always crops up if you don’t check, make sure all the outlets on the circuit are in your room. I had a customer many years ago who had intermittent power issues, the problem was the circuit in his apt living room also was strung through the wall to a hallway outlet. The cleaning lady used that outlet for a crappy vacuum, that was the source of his intermittent pops and hum. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 29, 2024 18:12:17 GMT -6
Hilariousy the power went out in my house just after receiving this reply. You can't make this stuff up. This is good advice. I'm going to be testing the outlets for grounding issues as soon as I can grab a testing unit. But let's assume grounding is the problem as it very well could be. Would an "isolated power conditioner" improve that by isolating the ground? And in answer to your last question, the one good thing is that the building is only used for rehearsal spaces and usually nobody else is there when I'm there. So what's running is HVAC, lots of security cameras, a motion sensor on the front door (about 50' away), and a wifi router that's about 25' away. The only real cure for grounding issues is a decent ground, depending on age of building it would in way suprise me if some did what we in Galveston referred to as “ an Island complete re wire”, this where someone replaces all the Metal outlet boxes with plastic and all the 2 prong outlets with 3 and the ground just hangs. The bad news, HVAC is one of the worst sources of problems, that and restaurant equipment and if someone has an old school fluorescent tube light grow house. Oh yeah if the space has fluorescent even the compact fluorescent bulbs get rid of them. Also and this is one that always crops up if you don’t check, make sure all the outlets on the circuit are in your room. I had a customer many years ago who had intermittent power issues, the problem was the circuit in his apt living room also was strung through the wall to a hallway outlet. The cleaning lady used that outlet for a crappy vacuum, that was the source of his intermittent pops and hum. Very, very interesting. I know for a fact that all there are outlets on the circuit not in our room. Well not for a fact, but I'm pretty sure. Because when the light to the storage closet goes on, it also flips a (you guessed it) horrid fluorescent light on in our room. Now, that rarely happens when I'm in there, but I have no idea what else is plugged in in that room. I will check that out for sure. Incidentally that room also has a vacuum cleaner that goes back to Egyptian antiquity but I've never seen it used. |
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