Today our hydro power company released a statement: “We’ve heard from many customers asking why clocks skipped a few minutes this morning. This was due to our system balancing to match customer demand following a period of high frequency overnight. We want to reassure this wasn’t a result of system/equipment related issues.”
When I checked around the house my alarm , microwave and oven clocks were all 8-10 minutes ahead but my PC and Keurig coffee maker were fine. How can this system balancing change what time some clocks are displaying and why does it only affect certain devices?
In: 3
Because many electric clocks have a genius way to keep time: they have a little motor to run the hands (not the genius part) that’s run pretty much straight from the power. Power from the electric company is almost always alternating current; in the US and Canada it’s at 60 Hz. A motor connected to that AC will ‘pulse’ 60 times a seconds; that’s fast enough that they don’t look like pulses. But it means that when the electric company runs fast (like 61 Hz), the clock will go fast, and when the electric company runs slow (like 59 Hz), the clock will run slow.
It’s genius because the power company will actually count how many pulses they put out during the day and will go a little faster or slower to catch up. This keeps the clocks running very acurately.
Your PC, on the other hand, just has a chip inside that keeps track of time, with a correction from the internet. There’s a US agency (and others) that will provide accurate times and the PC clock will keep up.
I don’t know the deal with your Keurig. If it’s on Wi-Fi, that’s why it’s accurate? Or maybe the Keurig company uses a better clock chip to track time?
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