VEG Automatic Voltage Regulator - The Saga

[bankruatsteve]

I wouldn't make the "dog house" too small.  Those things get hot and will self destruct.

[farmerjo]

All excited now my AVR has been installed.

The Mrs showed some pictures when working to the companies engineer and he suggested to turn the pump bypass off.

Does anyone know what this function achieves,is it for water cooling?

Put 3 air cons on to test it and fine.

3 air cons and 3500kw shower not so good,dropped to 90 volts on the input side and went into delay mode.

Will do some more tests tomorrow,i have a multi meter and can check volts,how do i check amps being used? 

 

[Crossy]

Careful, the shed looks rather too good, you'll have a family moving in.

 

I think "pump bypass" really just means "bypass" which it would use when the supply is good to reduce the losses in the transformer. With your somewhat "interesting" supply characteristics I doubt bypass ever actually turns on.

 

You need a clamp-meter to measure the current, something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32895131443.html

 

[tjo o tjim]

The D version Crossy linked is nice, it has both AC and DC current, as well as banana jacks for voltage probes. Really adds flexibility. 

[farmerjo]

Just a update.

Well it was one way to get the PEA moving,they have laid out 9 high transmission poles to be installed.

Not sure of the size transformer yet.

That should get their 220 volt poles to about 300 metres from home,then i can see if the final step of a thicker cable from meter to house is required.

The AVR is working well,great to be able to do some welding(not cockie crap)

The only downside so far is as Arjen pointed out is that it is slow to recover from a high load.

ie main line volts drop to 130 when welding then when finished it will cut the power for a second or two then restart.Everything restarts automatically.

Haven't been to town yet to get the amp tester.  

[tjo o tjim]

Boy, your neighbors must love your welder!  Might be worth investing in a small generator to run it given how bad your power is; PEA will never design for a welder to work well for your neighbors!

[farmerjo]

On 8/15/2019 at 7:44 AM, Arjen said:

Oops, I do not have this issue what you describe. It is more that after a voltage drop (lets say 130V), and the voltage increases back to 220, the AVR, supplies quite a long time (probably 30 seconds, a voltage from around 230V. I do not consider this as a real problem. It is just different fom the VEG. My one does not switch off.

 

About the pump switch, I was explained when switcing this one on it will respond more on a way pumps like (I have no idea what pumps like, different then other motors) 

 

Arjen.

Thanks Arjen,

I spoke to the engineer and with the delay cutting out he said to put the pump switch on.(not normal position)

At this stage i might have bought the wrong model going for the 100-260 volt range as what is happening is when i turn the shower heater off and pump switch is in normal mode i'm going out on over voltage.He mentioned something about power factor when volts coming back up.

The PEA transmission line extension should be complete in next couple of days so will know more then.

[farmerjo]

One more question,the transmission lines are complete with a 30 kva transformer  and in service now.

I did a follow along the 220 volt lines and it appears they haven't separated the lines between the two transformers.

I would of thought they would be disconnected so one transformer goes one way and the other feeds the other way or can they run together?.

They made a mess of all the fibre optic cables with us having TOT out to repair our line and i saw just after 3BB busy up the poles.

[tjo o tjim]

They will likely separate them; it isn’t always obvious where it is disconnected.  They generally go two directions from each transformer and split at a pole in the middle, although sometimes they just open the fuse cutouts so they have the option to backfeed.

[farmerjo]

Thanks,your right i found the pole where they are separated.

 

[Crossy]

So @farmerjo how's the revised supply?

 

[farmerjo]

The water heaters are the worst as they still drag down to 170-180.(the voltage drop seems to stay the same whether the heater dial is 1/4 or full,problem?)

I can see why you said not to use AVR with them but have no choice with the location of it.

With the pump bypass on there are no blackouts when voltage is recovering.(normal will cut power for 6 sec)

Still haven't been to town to get the amp tester(even with a lot of appliances on i very rarely reach the second green line on the load and never tripped a cb)

So all in all happy i went down this path, gives me peace of mind for the electrical items.

 

 

[Crossy]

1 hour ago, farmerjo said:

I can see why you said not to use AVR with them but have no choice with the location of it.

 

It may be worth the trouble of running an un-regulated cable for the water heaters. You only need to run a live as the neutral will be passing straight through the AVR (do verify that your man has the straight through connection on the neutral side).

 

[farmerjo]

Might leave as is for time being as they only put in the high transmission line and transformer,they did not extend their 220 volt poles any further my way at this stage.It will happen as two houses are being built.

So transformer is now 200 metres from my meter then my 550 metres to house. 

Not sure i would trust my local bloke to do any further mods.Was good with the neatness of installation but i was frustrated when i wanted him to solder the lugs to the cables and he said no need me crimp(without crimping pliers)The icing with him was while here i got him to change a 63 amp chang that was tight and charged me 400 baht,i asked why so much for 5 minutes work.He said i change when system live.He had just put an isolater in the avr shed 10 metres away an hour before.????