Metering single phase load

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kane

Member
Location
Singapore
I have a three-phase smart meter, and now i'm trying to get the electricity consumption of a single phase fan.
Anyone have any idea about how to use the three phase meter to monitor the consumption of a single phase fan? I'm not sure about how to connect the fan into the three phase lines.
Really thanks a lot for your help.
 

GoldDigger

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Location
Placerville, CA, USA
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Retired PV System Designer
I have a three-phase smart meter, and now i'm trying to get the electricity consumption of a single phase fan.
Anyone have any idea about how to use the three phase meter to monitor the consumption of a single phase fan? I'm not sure about how to connect the fan into the three phase lines.
Really thanks a lot for your help.

If this were a conventional meter rather than a smart meter, it would be easy.
What voltage is the fan and what voltage is the three-phase meter designed for?

If the meter is designed for a three phase 4-wire wye system with a line to neutral voltage of 120 volts and the fan runs off 120 single phase, then you can just wire 120 volts between one of the three phase wires and the neutral and the fan to the corresponding output phase wire and neutral.

For a smart meter, it will depend on how it derives the power for its internal electronics and whether that will work with only one phase driven.
 

kane

Member
Location
Singapore
For a smart meter, it will depend on how it derives the power for its internal electronics and whether that will work with only one phase driven.

This is a smart meter and the fan is a normal fan which should be 230VAC single phase load to the house application.
Actually what confused me now is that I'm not sure whether the meter will still function well and metering the fan consumption or not, if I just connect the fan to one of the phase line and leave other two unbalanced.

Thus I wonder is it possible to design the single phase fan into the circuit among the three phase lines? Just a unsure idea.
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
130304-0824 EST

A smart meter is not a good way to measure power. First, a "smart meter" is primarily designed for energy measurement. Second, the limited capability to determine the load power on a smart meter is via some flashing spots (dots) and a stop watch. Not very good resolution for power.

A low cost instrument to measure power is a Kill-A-Watt and it works well even on very poor power factor. Its basic limitations in a US product are a nominal 120 V input and a maximum of 15 A current. In the far east there may be units for your voltages.

I believe the reason the Kill-A-Watt works well on low power factor is that a resistive shunt is used for current measurement. For example, a good quality capacitor load read 4.21 A, 3 W, 520 VA, and 0 PF at 123.1 V.

A moderate cost power and energy instrument is the TED system. But it still might have problems with your voltage source, and it has noticeable power factor problems. It can handle 200 A and resolve about 2 W.

There are many instruments available that are designed to measure power and will work with different input ranges. These probably start above $500.

Some newer scopes have power measurement capability. Otherwise you can do a volt * ampere * power factor measurement. Use an older scope to get an approximation of phase shift.


Clarify your goal.

You used the word consumption. This can imply energy. But if you have a smart meter on your home, or building and there are other loads also using power (energy), then it is hard to single out the consumption of only the fan. Thus, the reason to measure power of the fan alone. Then multiply power by on time of the fan to get energy measurement.

.
 
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Haji

Banned
Location
India
Kane:
Check the meter manual. What it says about the minimum load on the meter to register with accuracy etc.,
 
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