3 Phase Power Problems

[carlyai]

SUCCESS. Short story. All now OK.

Long Story:

Wifey visited PEA and a standard reply 'not our problem and not a meter problem. Get a local electrician to check your house'.

So there seemed to be a sparky living a couple of houses away and he arrived with another guy. Both nice guys I know, but doubtful of their qualifications.

So they came and I showed them the problem with load and no load and one said I had the meter leads round the wrong way. So getting over the DC vs AC problem we quickly got to the meter box and a few other red herrings they bought up. They took the cover of the meter and the PEA connections were lose. The guy said all of them. So tightened them all up and everything works again.

Tree still needs trimming.

Great, have go to people that can check the meter just around the corner.

Power fixed, now if it would only rain as all the crops are dead and dying. Happy Isaan.

 

[Crossy]

Result!!

 

 

[bankruatsteve]

Check out post #2.  ????

[RichCor]

2 hours ago, carlyai said:

They took the cover of the meter and the PEA connections were lose. The guy said all of them. So tightened them all up and everything works again.

 

1 hour ago, bankruatsteve said:

Check out post #2.  ????

 

Yea, I think pretty much everyone said to check ALL the connections (and interconnections).

 

Pretty much this is the first thing that should be done when experiencing voltage drops. Even if they all look tight, power off, loosen and snug them up again. 

 

Glad to hear the problem is finally solved.

[carlyai]

2 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

Check out post #2.  ????

You'll keep. ????

[carlyai]

35 minutes ago, RichCor said:

 

 

Yea, I think pretty much everyone said to check ALL the connections (and interconnections).

 

Pretty much this is the first thing that should be done when experiencing voltage drops. Even if they all look tight, power off, loosen and snug them up again. 

 

Glad to hear the problem is finally solved.

Yes, slow learner, but I wasn't going to get a ladder and attach that meter box. I've got someone to call to do it now. It just seemed strange to me that all 3 phases started playing up at the same time if something was lose. But it could have been happening intermittently for awhile as that meter box has been installed in the same place with no additions for 6 years.

Lesson learned. Can sleep again. ????

[bankruatsteve]

15 minutes ago, carlyai said:

It just seemed strange to me that all 3 phases started playing up at the same time if something was lose.

Maybe those tree limbs shook the cables enough to loosen at the meter.  (?)

[RichCor]

Screw terminals are prone to loosening over time, especially in areas experiencing vibration.

 

But it's unlikely 'all' of the phase terminals on your meter would back off the same degree. More likely they were just never really tightened down to begin with. Surprised you weren't experiencing brown-outs.

[carlyai]

It has been a while since the PEA screws were tightened and a world of difference. 

Every now and then I sit in a chair where I can hear the 3 AVRs performing. So what I thought was normal village power problems (all 3 AVR's working and rotating), was the lose PEA screw terminals. I thought that there was lots of problems with the incoming power feeds and what I thought was people welding. As the problem has been there since the initial installation, I thought it was normal, in fact, maybe that's the reason I bought the AVRs....can't remember.

But now I know what is normal and the AVRs are mostly quiet.