Power Conditioners

Power Conditioners are used to keep voltage spikes and interference at harmless levels, whilst maintaining a stable voltage supply. There will always be some transient noise in any mains power supply, however, any sudden increase can seriously damage or disable sensitive electronic equipment.

Sudden voltage spikes can occur when switching on equipment, especially if they have heavy inductive loads or if there is an atmospheric electrical disturbance, such as lightning.

Transient Noise

Transient noise is present to some extent in all mains supplies. High-energy voltage spikes and surges are introduced into distribution lines by the switching of equipment, especially heavy inductive loads or by atmospheric electrical disturbance, such as induced lightning strikes. All our stabilisers are fitted with voltage surge protection. Some equipment will be little affected by this noise but some sensitive systems can malfunction or be damaged.

These applications call for an AC Power Conditioner that can attenuate voltage spikes and noise to a harmless level as well as maintaining a stable voltage.

Common mode interference can also be a problem and most microprocessor-based equipment will require a supply with this earth to neutral noise factor limited to less than 0.25V peak. For this reason, you may be considering installing a "clean line" from the mains distribution point, but this will not always give the required level of protection.

Line conditioning is the more positive solution, achieved by fitting an isolation transformer with the secondary neutral linked to earth. This isolation transformer eliminates the need for a dedicated line and at the point of linking neutral to earth the common mode interference is ZERO. Stabilisers with added interference suppression are often referred to as "Line Voltage Conditioners" or "Power Conditioners".