Distortion on the Power Line

Neighbor's running air conditioners??

Commercial air conditioning systems with variable speed motors are the most likely culprits.  They share the harmonic distortion with all their power grid neighbors.

Is that a consistent 7%, or high during the day and drops at night?  If it's drops at night it is likely Air Con, but even then that is a fair amount of THD. As it is incoming I assume the PS unit is measuring voltage THD.


It's pretty easy to determine if the issue is any part of the circuit from your PS unit all the way back to the transformer. Turn off all the breakers in your house except the one to your PS unit(s), and turn off the equipment connected to the PS. If the distortion is still high, then it's a local line issue not your feed. You could alternately just turn off all the loads in your house but the breakers are probably fastest. Without any loads, any corrosion, etc. will not impact THD.