Effects of voltage sags on household loads

Voltage sags form the core of power quality issues gripping the US utility industries for over a decade now. These sags disrupt the sensitive loads in almost every environment such as industrial, commercial, and residential, resulting in significant production outages. These sags have far reaching effects on certain type of loads. This paper presents the effect of voltage sags on household loads such as air-conditioner compressors, lighting loads, and computers. For each of the mentioned loads, experiments have been conducted and are still in process to study the effects of sags on them for different sag depths and durations. For experimental purposes, a sag generator is used to study the effects. A summary of the results have been presented in the paper by the authors in the conclusion. The experimental results for the loads appear to be in harmony with the theoretical investigation.