[time-nuts] Recommendations for Mains Power Monitor / Logger

[Bob Albert]

 There isn't a whole lot of justification for measuring power line frequency.  We are all synchronized (in the first world at least) and while there are phase instabilities, it's seldom the frequency varies enough to overcome the noise.
As for voltage, it's much more steady than several years ago.  Most people have 122 Volts, give or take a couple.  Again, not a whole lot of purpose in recording it.
The distortion is another story.  It's never quite sinusoidal but there is also some random noise picked up between the generators and the load.  Looking at the 'scope it's seldom it looks like the textbook picture of a sine wave.  Chances are most distortion is odd harmonic.
Distortion probably mostly comes from loads which are not resistive, such as switching power supplies, rectifiers, fluorescent lamps, and such.  These loads draw currents that are not sinusoids and so cause voltage drops that are also of that character.
Bob
    On Saturday, March 10, 2018, 3:14:35 PM PST, Patrick Murphy <fgdhrtey at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 All this talk of varying mains power frequency aberrations has me
curious what is happening in my own back yard here in Tulsa in the
USA. Can some recommend a reasonable "introductory level" solution for
this? (As a fledgling Time-Nut, those two words were hard to say.😀)
At the least I would like to watch voltage and frequency, with a
configurable monitoring and logging interval. I can provide precise
timing as needed for synchronization and time-stamping. Expanded
ability to also monitor amperage, various power factors, etc is a plus
but not required at this point.

I've done some Googling and have found any number of designs. What I
can't tell is how well they work. I am pretty handy with my hands and
do not at all mind a DIY solution.

So what do the Oracles say?

Thanks!

-Pat
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