AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE STABLIZER

1. INTRODUCTION

In this twenty-first century more and more electronic and electrical items such
as washing machine, vacuum cleaner, refrigerator, television, radio, audio-video
players etc. are being used in general household. Uses of electronic/electrical devices
are also becoming very common in business and industry.
All these devices are designed to give their best performance at 230V power
supply. When the power given to these device deviate from this required 230V,
performance of the device may degrade, their life will get reduced. Sometimes these
variations in the mains power supply could even damage the equipment.
The changes or fluctuation in the AC mains power supply could vary in both the
directions, sometimes it may go below the required 230V, and sometimes it may go
higher than the required value.
These changes/variations in the AC mains power supply has made the user to
look for some device which will be able to provide a steady power supply to the
equipments connected to the mains line. When the voltage in the AC mains fluctuates,
this device should be able to provide a steady power supply to any equipment
connected to it. A device which provides above facility is known as a VOLTAGE
STABILIZER" as it stables the power supply voltage.

2.BASIC OPERATION
When a fluctuating power supply is given as input to the stabilizer provides a constant
power supply as output. One can connect equipments to this constant power supply
output from the stabilizer.

3.CLASSIFICATION OF VOLTAGE STABILIZER

Based on its mode of operation, following are some of the commonly available
stabilizers.
Manual Voltage Stabilizer
Auto-cut Voltage Stabilizer
Automatic Voltage Stabilizer

3.1 MANUAL VOLTAGE STABILIZER

In a manual voltage stabilizer when the inputs supply voltage change, the
stabilizer is manually set in such a manner that the output from a stabilizer will
provide a constant 220-230V power supply.
If the power supply input to the stabilizer changes again, then one needs to once
again manually set the stabilizer to get the required 230V supply.
One very big drawback in this manual correction of power supply is, if there is
sudden change at the input supply, then the output supply will shoot beyond
acceptable limit and the instruments connected to the stabilizer may get damaged.
For example, when the mains power supply drops from 230V to 130V then you
have to manually set the stabilizer to increase the incoming voltage by 100V and
provide 230V supply as output.
Now, if the input supply suddenly changes back to 230V, then the output supply
from the stabilizer will jump to 230+100 i.e. 330V, which is high enough to damage
electronic/electrical instruments connected to it.

3.1 AUTO-CUT VOLTAGE STABILIZER

To overcome the drawback of the manual stabilizer, mentioned above, a facility
known as auto-cut is introduced in the voltage stabilizers.
This auto-cut facility protects any device connected to the stabilizer during any
sudden change in the input voltage, by automatically cutting off the output supply, if
the value of output goes beyond a fixed limit.
For example, one can make an auto-cut voltage stabilizer to cut off the output
supply when the supply goes higher than 250V or lower than 180V. This will protect
the device connected to the stabilizer from receiving very high or very low power
supply.
This arrangement of cutting off the output supply when the supply goes higher
than a fixed limit is known as over voltage cutout and the facility of cutting off the
output supply when the supply goes below a foxed level is known as under-voltage
cutout.
A good manual stabilizer should have both over-voltage as well as under
voltage cutout facility, without it, a device connected to the stabilizer may get
damaged during sudden changes in the input supply.

3.1 AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE STABILIZER

In an automatic voltage stabilizer, to keep the output supply constant when there
is variations in the output supply, one need not manually keep a watch on the input
voltage and change the output accordingly.
In this type of stabilizers, various electronic and electro-mechanical device such
as relays work together to automatically adjust the output voltage based on any
changes in the input voltage.
Electronic circuitry in this stabilizer automatically sense the change in the input
voltage and provide correct output voltage by stepping up or stepping-down the input
supply.