Not enough power to run shower heaters properly.

[coobah666]

Have a 3000 watt water heater shower and when in use all the lights dim fans go down to about 25 percent and have heard people from village 300 meters away complain about the farang taking all the power.

The closest electric pole is 270mtrs away and I have 2 - 16mm cables running into the house from the pole

Someone told me you can get a transformer and boost the lack of current that I have that you put on your property before cables go into the house.

Also have a 9000 watt heater on the spa that just drops everything and the water pump stops pumping so it doesn't get used at all.

Any information on how to get more power would be good.

Thei in the joys of living in the bush......

[Crossy]

What size meter have PEA installed (5/15, 15/45, 30/100)?

A 3kW heater should be fine even on a 5/15 but it sounds like the village has a supply issue, maybe an under-sized transformer. You really need to speak to your local PEA office and get them to investigate.

Using an AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) won't help much if at all. Yes it will boost the voltage, but at the expense of drawing even more current from what is evidently a seriously over taxed supply.

That 270m of 16mm² is certainly not helping, at just 15A it will be dropping 6%, at 41A (9kW) the cable alone is costing 35V (16%) of the available supply.

To run your 9kW heater you'll need a 15/45 meter minimum and 50mm² supply cable, and then the village supply still needs to be meaty enough.

Task 1. Talk to PEA and get them to investigate.

EDIT Does the power pole have HV wires (3 on big insulators at the top) which you could use via your own transformer?

If you're not sure, post a photo.

[coobah666]

Thanks crossy,the meter is a 15/45 and where the meter is is still another 70 meters to the main road supply. From the main road there is 3 wires not like on the main road where theyrun on the insulators so total distance from the main road is about 340-350 meters to the house

Edited January 10, 2014 by coobah666