Power. Last week in frustration I called in an electrician who hopefully knew what he was doing, unlike my landlady’s electrician, who definitely doesn’t. I mean, how hard is it to check the voltage at the power point? Very hard according to him, requires expensive equipment. Uh huh. Like a $25 multimeter.
So anyway, on Wednesday the guy turns up. Reminded me a bit of one those blokes in The Trade. He seemed to know what he was doing, and looked at a few things. He even said the new switchbox put in by Mr Dodgey Electricals seemed to be a good job, which surprised me a little. And he brought his multimeter. Surprisingly he found the voltage to be up higher than expected, around 249 to 254 volts. That’s just barely within the standard apparently, and enough to make the power company claim they’re innocent of any wrongdoing.
Where does this leave me then? I’ve got a computer monitor that works perfectly at Josh’s, but not at my place. The other stuff (stereo receiver and DVD player) has been shown to be damaged by the earlier shenanigans with the burnt out switch box. But the monitor is a mystery. Maybe it has been damaged just enough that its ability to handle voltage variations (like 254 volts) has been diminished, to the point where it works at Josh’s but not at my place?
I don’t know. But I think I’ve run out of ideas.
