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CE Risks from Argentina's Drop to 209V?

Posted by Cliff on from the will-anything-break dept.

stm2 asks: "Effective yesterday at 6 PM GMT, the voltage in Argentina was dropped from 220V to 209V (without any warning). The aim of this change is to save power. According to gov' officials, it won't affect domestic appliances. As a concerned IT worker I think some high precision electric devices could be at stake. There is an ongoing national debate about it. Could the technical community at Slashdot give some insights about possible unintended effects?"

6 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. No problem at all. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just flip your power supply switches over to the 115V setting and you'll have more than enough power.

  2. Many wanted to reply, but couldn't... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    because they are in Argentina!

  3. Back to 220 by crow · · Score: 5, Informative
    A quick check at Google News revealed:

    http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086& sid=a54gb5_g9EIQ&refer=latin_america

    Apparently they've put the voltage back to 220 after reaching an agreement to buy power from Brazil.

  4. Just PR bullshit to rise prices by DeepBlueDiver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As almost anything you have seen on the news from Argentina, reality is quite different.

    Electricty companies have been demanding an price increment since 2 years ago, but it would be a very unpopular and "politicaly incorrect" for the government to allow it; so they need to present this as some kind of "emergency".

    In the end, companies will:

    a) be permited to rise prices about 25%
    b) receive a direct subside from government
    c) receive an indirect subside form government in form of tax excemptions, "special" fuell prices for generation, "loans" for equipment renewal, etc.
    d) all of the above

  5. I read 213 V right now by DeepBlueDiver · · Score: 5, Informative

    My tester shows 213 V right now, at my house in downtown Buenos Aires. As I said in a previous post, this is just PR bs.

  6. Re:"Save power"? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Informative
    The funny thing here is that all appliances that regulate the amount of power they consume will continue to consume the same amount of power

    True, but other devices act more like simple resistors, and if less voltage is applied they will consume less power. You PC will self-regulate, but your lightbulbs will get dimmer.

    I'll bet that light bulbs and other "simple resistor" devices outweigh PCs and self-regulators several times over.

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