Can P20 keep the voltage at 115VAC always?

Can the P20 be set to keep the voltage at 115VAC no matter what is coming out of the wall all the time? Is so, where is the setting? My power runs high and I would like to lower it. Thank you

I think 120v / 240v ± 5% is the standard for the USA nationwide now. 114v is the low limit and 126v is the high limit. Mine runs on the high side at 123-124v (246-248v) most days. Higher is usually better and easier on the equipment.

This is all correct but the simple answer is yes, you can set the Power Plant for 115 and it will produce that voltage irrespective ion input voltage. It is set from the front panel touch screen.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I would set it at 120v.
I use an old P300 and my incoming voltage is usually 126v, seldom lower than 124. *
Any of the power plants will lower your voltage, it is raising it above the incoming voltage that is going to make it work harder.

  • Based on digital multi-tester, both coming off a Dectet on same circuit and an outlet in my kitchen, picked due to easy access.

@jeffstarr it was my understanding that the regenerators will work equally harder according to the % voltage raised or cut from the desired set voltage - but of course I could be wrong.

Edit: Apology just re-read my post and seems confusing even to me :slight_smile: What I mean is that (acc to my understanding) the regenerators have to work equally hard whether it has to raise or cut the voltage from the wall; in order to maintain the desired set voltage.

This is great. It took me a moment to see the setting. Set it to 120VAC. My incoming is over 127! I need the POCO to look at this because we have our own Xformers on very large property. It is killing other appliances I imagine. All computers on UPS but the Fridge ETC.

Hopefully Paul or someone from PSA can definitively answer this.

It isn’t just maintaining voltage, but maintaining it when more current is needed.
Seeing as a regenerator is basically an amplifier, my thinking was that excess voltage would be drained off, while creating a higher voltage would require that the capacitors in the power supply would have to work harder.
Of course I could be wrong too.

High voltage is a little rough on incandescent light bulbs but everything else is OK with it. Low voltage is the real killer of anything with a motor.

“Drained off” is a little misleading but a good thought. An amplifier, like that inside the Power Plant, can reduce higher voltages to lower, and vice versa, by converting the excess voltage into heat or sucking more current from the wall. And that’s what it does.

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Paul, PLCOMP posted above that a power plant “will work equally harder according to the % voltage raised or cut from the desired set voltage”.
I had thought it would work harder to increase voltage than to lower. I also thought it might dissipate excess voltage by turning it into heat, but I wasn’t sure. I wonder if my P300 runs so hot as my incoming voltage is 126v. I have it set to 120v, and it only using about 40 watts. Preamp, PWT, tuner, and DAC.

Yep, that’s how I understand it but I could of course be wrong …
My limited understanding also leads me to believe that a power plant’s most desirable setting would be around the average of the lowest and highest incoming voltage from the power utility, so as to keep both cut and boost to the minimum.

Be it as it may: I love my P20 and won’t be without it!

You’re very lucky to have a P20, I couldn’t afford a P2 [that’s a joke, I know there is no P2].
I was hoping that Paul would answer your part of the question. I still am curious if you are correct in how they work just the same lowering or raising voltage from the wall outlet.
I set my P300, the original power plant to 120v, the default is 117v.
I do disagree with one thing, the most desirable voltage has to be the one that is best for the gear plugged into it.

Which then easily explains why a better, non current limiting power cable improves my P20 performance.

I’ve always understood it is slightly more efficient to buck than boost. I’d rather be in a position to dissipate a bit more heat than pull more current.

https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1273121

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Makes perfect sense.

Yes that makes sense - but how do you determine the most desirable voltage? Theoretically, of course it will be the voltage it was manufactured for, eg. 230V in a 230V country. However (a) If you could easily “dial” the voltage to a single component at a time up or down during listening tests (of course not easily feasible), you may very well end up with different “best desirable voltages” for the various items; and (b) in real life, voltages vary up and down all the time: In different cities / provinces /states of the same country; and also to the same area during different times of the day.

So my point is: Your equipment in any case should be robust enough to work well between (say) 220V and 240V in a 230V country; and to me - according to my understanding, it makes sense to set the power plant closer to 225V (eg) or closer to 235V (eg) depending on the average received from the utility, in order to minimse buck/boost equally well. [Apology: Eng not my 1st lang so I’m sure I could’ve put this much more elequently].

Some years ago there was a problem in especially the UK, where voltages went as high as 245 or even up to 250V, as I recall. The PPP was in a lot of cases unable to buck the high voltge until a “work-around” fix was introduced, which had to do with swopping the xformer windings around.

But anyways: The power plants - in latest guise - are so good that problems of this kind is AFAIK a thing of the past. I’m just happy to know that my P20 is working fine and I’m enjoying it.
I still do think it works equally hard bucking or boosting the same amnt of voltage; and Bob Stadherr is actually the right person to clear this one up for us. :slightly_smiling_face:

I don’t think we would hear a difference of a couple of volts, if they are near the rated voltage. I think I am right in theory, but that in reality it doesn’t matter.
You could use a variac, but why bother. I actually have one that I used to use when powering up old components.
Well email Bob or Paul, as I don’t know, but think it is kind of interesting, the working harder part, not the ideal voltage.