Maybe, maybe not. A lot of places in the world suffer from brownouts which can bring voltage plummeting down to ~90v. For anywhere in Canada/USA to be a constant 100v instead of 120v to me is ridiculous. Detroit is a special situation though, I suppose.
I'm fortunate enough to have one of the best electrical utility companies in the world (Hydro Quebec) servicing me, so I don't have to worry about low voltage situations. I draw a constant ~100-120A from my 200A home electrical installation, and still show 118v/236v at the wall. That being said, I would gladly pay an extra $20 per miner if it meant having an actual quality PSU in the unit. When it comes down to it, these high wattage power supplies almost have enough current to arc weld. I have absolutely no faith in a no-name Chinese power supply company, and my worries were proven right with the S4. I don't care if it's made in China, as long as it caries a known brand name with specs and reputation that I can look up. I'll pay extra every day if it means getting a hassle free PSU from the likes of Seasonic, Flextronics, Delta, Super Flower, etc. Apluspower Co. doesn't inspire any faith at all, and is a fire hazard in my books.
I'd like to believe that the revised power supplies from B2 will solve the issue, but there have already been reports of burnt out/DOA PSUs. I'll be replacing mine with 2000w Deltas to be safe, and when I sell them they will still have working OEM PSUs.
Its worth noting that there is nothing wrong with those B1 PSUs for computer use - the problem was caused by the unusual loading pattern miners have. This turned would would be considered sensible cost saving [/earlier development] into a failure mode.
Unusual pattern or not, if it was a quality unit it would have handled the loads. There was a lack of engineering somewhere along the line at Apluspower Co. that resulted in them failing where a proper PSU would not have failed. The day my S4's PSU died, I ordered a replacement Delta DPS-2000 for it and also for my newer B2 S4. I know the Delta unit will handle the loading pattern without issue, as any well built PSU should. I would expect consumer grade PSUs to handle the load also, so long as they are quality units from Seasonic, Felx, etc.
To be clear, I'm not bashing Bitmain. They are not power supply manufacturers, and I'm sure they took A+ at their word that their PSU's would be sufficient to properly power the S4. A+ is to blame here, IMO.
I bought my DPS-2000 for $30 on ebay. If I'm not mistaken, they were introduced on the server market about 5 years ago and cost somewhere in the 4 digits range. While it's used, and requires cooling be provided externally, it's a much safer bet than anything A+ could ever muster. Maybe in the future Bitmain would be better off integrating an unconventional used server PSU in their units. It doesn't get any better than a server PSU from the likes of Delta, Zippy, etc. Even when used.
