What does a power conditioner do that a voltage regulator can't?

[wirenut1980]

What is the difference between a power conditioner and a voltage regulator? Or are they pretty much the same thing?

Thanks!
Dave

 

[charlie b]

It depends on the price of the power conditioner. I can give you one that conditions it to the ON condition or to the OFF condition, and it's on sale this week.

A voltage regulator essentially controls the magnitude of the voltage signal. I don't think a device with that name would be able to alter the waveform. If the voltage wave is not a simple and pure sine wave before it enters the voltage regulator, then it will not be a sine wave after it leaves.

By contrast, a power conditioner can take a sloppy incoming waveform and give you back a simple and pure sine wave. The degree of "purity" will depend, as I jokingly alluded to earlier, on the price you are willing to pay for the device (i.e., on the complexity of the electronic circuitry).

 

[quogueelectric]

A voltage regulator

A voltage regulator

What is the difference between a power conditioner and a voltage regulator? Or are they pretty much the same thing?

Thanks!
Dave

Pretty much is what it says it regulates output voltage in the simplest sense. For example the output of your alternator on your car is a simple 3 phase generator with a voltage regulating circuit to hold the output voltage at 14.2 volts in the face of constantly changing current loads. Headlights on starter motor cranking fans on high it will try to constantly maintain the ideal voltage to both run the car and recharge your 12 volt battery under the chalenges of a constantly changing load. Somehow zener diodes come into play but I have been out of school for a long time for this. A power conditioner takes all of the spikes and ripples of the normally delivered power and gives clean power as others have said how much do you want to spend. Some designs include driving an electric motor which drives a generator set so this takes a lot of the spikes out of the waveforms which is hard to transfer through the motor generator set. They are taken out through physical momentum of the genset is difficult to transfer short spikes and smoothes out the sine wave.

 

[72.5kv]

It is possible to get both the power conditioner and the regulator in one unit. some people with high end audio equipment will have no problem paying about 2k for the unit. It has an input voltage range from 90 to 140. It will keep the output still at 120.


As far as voltage regulation on a car, DC to DC switch mode regulators are the norm today.

 

[robbietan]

It depends on the price of the power conditioner. I can give you one that conditions it to the ON condition or to the OFF condition, and it's on sale this week.

A voltage regulator essentially controls the magnitude of the voltage signal. I don't think a device with that name would be able to alter the waveform. If the voltage wave is not a simple and pure sine wave before it enters the voltage regulator, then it will not be a sine wave after it leaves.

By contrast, a power conditioner can take a sloppy incoming waveform and give you back a simple and pure sine wave. The degree of "purity" will depend, as I jokingly alluded to earlier, on the price you are willing to pay for the device (i.e., on the complexity of the electronic circuitry).

to add some more, the power conditioner can do a lot of things to provide you with the 'ideal sine wave' that many consumers crave for but the power company cannot provide. this may include voltage regulation, harmonics filtering, voltage sag mitigation, etc. As true as ever, price is the matter. have the price, and the gadget can be designed to cater to that problem