Hi all, this has been a great thread. I did want to share a few things I have seen.
all of the older transformers and many of the newer ones were designed with out regard to the condition of the input power. That is to say how clean it is. If the power condition was figured at all it was assumed to be inductive.
because of the dramatic growth in consumer electronics our power has become more of a capacitive load. This causes hooks and other problems in the incoming power.
Those issues are passed they the transformer and seen on the secondary side. Rectification to dc does help to some extent but you still get spikes.
depending on the area that you live these issues can cause problems not only with your layout but in other places as well. Am example being do you have to replace incandescent bulbs all the time?
The above problem are greatly multiplied on multi Wire circuits and in areas that are adjacent to any large retail or commercial business
