Podcast #1007: Dirty Power and our Favorite Automations

Is the power in your house dirty enough to affect your Home Theater experience? We quantify how to determine if you have dirty power and how to clean it up. We also look at our favorite Home Automation Scenes, read your emails and go through the week’s news. 

Dirty Power

Howard’s email got us thinking about power and power conditioners. There is a lot of talk about dirty power and how it affects the life and performance of your electronics. Some say you will see and hear a difference. Others say it doesn’t make a difference unless the power is really dirty. 

How do you know if you have dirty power? You measure it with a Line Noise EMI Meter that measures the harmonics or dirty electricity on your home’s electrical wiring in millivolts. Acceptable readings are generally between 200 and 400 mV. When you get over 800mV some sort of power line filtering is needed. Well at least that’s what some experts say. 

The Line noise meters aren’t cheap. The one we use costs about $130 (AlphLabs Inc Power Line Meter). If you have dirty power, a good power conditioner will cost you anywhere between $50 and $150. There are some that run about $500. Almost all provide surge suppression so for that alone you may want to consider one for about $50.

Real World Results  

We measured the line noise in Ara’s house in two places. The room where the podcast is recorded and he has his music listening setup as well as the family room theater. The podcast studio is an addition that was done about 15 years ago. The family room was original construction from 1992. The results were a little surprising:

Podcast Studio - The Line Meter measured 150 millivolts which is good. The socket that was used was one the above the one used for a Furman power conditioner. The measurement from a socket on the power conditioner was 160mV. For fun we unplugged the Airport Express, audio amplifier, and the mixing board used for recording the podcast from the power conditioner and remeasured. The measurement dropped to 130mV in the unconditioned and power conditioned outlets. 

Family Room Theater - The Line Meter measured 30 millivolts which is excellent. It also measured 30mV for the power conditioned outlets. 

Conclusion - Ara’s home has clean power! And the power conditioner didn’t have to do anything to the power. 

Can You Hear and See the Difference?

This is a touchy subject similar to Hi Res Audio. In our tests, there was no perceptual change in sound or picture quality using a Furman and Belkin Power conditioner. Which makes sense since the filtering essentially left the low noise levels untouched. Do we have power conditioners? Yes, because they act as high falootin power strips and they don’t cost much more than a quality power strip.  

If you have very dirty power or even grounding issues, a power conditioner will definitely clean it up and improve your experience. Dirty power can be caused by a number of different electrical issues, some examples of these issues include:

Smart Meters Dimmer Switches Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL) Switch-mode power supplies (Computers, Phone and Tablet Chargers, etc) Surges or transients in voltage Power interruptions Variations in the frequency of power Waveform distortions Non-linear loads

If you suspect you have dirty power it may be a good investment to buy a similar meter and know for sure. If you have some buddies you can all chip in and buy one together. When one is done you can ship it to the other buddy if they don’t live nearby. You can ship it anywhere in the US for about $8 with the USPS “If it fits it ships” box. 

Our Home Automations/Scenes 

Home automation has three basic functions: 

Remote control of devices around the house - by this we mean something as simple turning on a light from the comfort of the couch or as complex as closing the garage door from another state  Controlling devices throughout the house at specified times - You can set your porch light to come on at sunset and turn off at 11:00PM for example. Scenes - Scenes are more or less the same thing as controlling a device at a specific time but usually entail controlling more devices or they can be a reaction to an event, or they can be enabled on demand.

Here is a list of some of the time based automations we use in our homes:

30 min before sunset if people are present - Kitchen ceiling lights are turned on. At this time it's starting to get dark in the kitchen so it's nice to have the extra light. You’d be surprised how long you will work in low light before your mind tells you to turn on the lights and see everything better. You may think this is no big deal but something so simple comes in handy when you are in the middle of cooking. Note that if it's cloudy 30 minutes is not early enough. Next improvement is to tie it in with the weather. 15 min before sunset - The rest of the indoor lights are turned on.  Sunset - All outdoor lights are turned on 8:45 PM - The kitchen light bleeds into the family room and at this point we have settled into the evening watching TV. This automation dims the kitchen lights to 40% and turns the hue lights in the cabinets to amber also at 40%. There are hue lights behind the TV and those go to  violet/purple color. Finally the lamp in the family room also goes reddish/amber color. This enhances the viewing experience. 11:00 PM - All indoor lights are turned off and the family room and living room lamps are set to 15%. They act as a night light. This is repeated at midnight because sometimes we are awake at 11:00 so we’ll turn a few lights back on. The midnight automation covers us with a final sweep of the indoor lights 2:00 AM - All outdoor lights are turned off. Sunrise - the two lamps acting as night lights are turned off 9:00 AM - All lights are turned off. In case someone leaves the house with out turning off lights they are all turned off.

Here is a list of some of the sensor automations we use in our homes:

Mudroom Light - you have to go through the mudroom when leaving or entering through the garage. The doors have contact sensors so when a door is opened the light comes on automatically and turns off in two minutes only if it is dark outside.   Porch Sensor - from 2:00 AM until sunrise if the motion sensor in the porch is tripped the porch light is turned on. Followed by a light upstairs one minute later. This is done to simulate someone waking up because the light turned on. Side of House and Backyard Sensors - After midnight any of these sensors turns on outdoor lights. The lights turn off after five minutes. Since animals trip this automation pretty frequently we have a physical controller that has a button to activate a scene called “Security Lights Off”. 

Here is a list of some of the seasonal automations we use in our homes:

Halloween - When this is enabled the outdoor lights turn to purple and orange at sunset.  Christmas -  When this is enabled the outdoor lights turn to Red, Green, Orange, Blue, and White,  at sunset.

We also have a scene in the projector room that manages the lights for watching a movie. I tried to tie it to the play/pause button on the harmony remote and just got frustrated with it. Instead there is a button on a separate controller that is a toggle for movie watching on and off. Super simple but not as fancy. 

What are your favorite automations?