Low voltage single phase - whole house stabilizer or get 3 phase and split?

[Crossy]

It's no trouble for me, I just worry that valuable insight isn't making it to the intended destination.

[carlyai]

You are too nice.

That's another carton of beer I owe you.

Will look into the problem after my 2 day aquaponics course in bangers.

Looking forward to unsprayed fresh veggies and fresh fish in Isaan ?

[Naam]

progress report Muang Thai, Roi Et: "have amplifiers music too much, voltage stabiliser not know, maybe engineer know and call you when come back."

[Naam]

progress report: 3 x Comson Stabilizers 20KVA delivery tomorrow afternoon.

[Naam]

delivery with delay today. tomorrow wiring.

[Naam]

progress report:

[Crossy]

Nothing has gone bang yet then Naam

Do your sparkies have a drawing of how they're wiring it up?

[Naam]

Nothing has gone bang yet then Naam

Do your sparkies have a drawing of how they're wiring it up?

sparkies? what sparkies Crossy?

i'm all alone with my engineering assistant. we just stopped work and decided to do the final hook-up monday morning.

reason: if we had the stabilisers connected as we (wrongly) planned it wouldn't have worked. what is left is a little "rerouting" meter > main breaker > stabilisers > thingy.

our wrong plan was meter > main breaker > thingy > stabiliser (no wiring diagram, sparkie who did the thingy installation dead).

what is still confusing is that "thingy out" are two cables per phase running parallel and then become one

[carlyai]

I'm a bit unconcentrating at the moment, but, the installation looks great and professional from the pics Naam.

I've got something similar, (like piggyback wiring) when I go from 3 phase to one phase to my gen set.

But I'm Leoed out, at the moment.

Looks good Naam. No bangs then all good. ?

[Naam]

the jury is still out Carlyai and hasn't yet decided whether everything was done professionally

but without my overbearing "thingy" the project would have been a "piece of cake".

next related project is already on my mind, id est bypassing the thingy in case of a major component failure who's repair would perhaps block the power supply to my home for an unspecified period.

bypassing the stabilisers can be done by the flick of a built-in switch in each unit.

academic question for Crossy and all other learned sparkies:

-if a three-phase mainbreaker (irrelevant of its switching characteristics) has a maximum "capacity" of x-amps and the current of only one of the phases equals x plus y amps does it hold or not?

Edited July 2, 2016 by Naam

[Crossy]

-if a three-phase mainbreaker (irrelevant of its switching characteristics) has a maximum "capacity" of x-amps and the current of only one of the phases equals x plus y amps does it hold or not?

An overload on any one phase will open all three.

[Naam]

thanks Crossy, i thought as much but my assistant had doubts. the question came up when we evaluated the situation "potential meter overload" based on the fact that i never experienced a brown-out of all three phases. it was always one or two phases with low voltage.

[Naam]

another (not so) academic question.

-my stabilisers are rated 80a each,

-incoming breaker "triple" unit 80a (switching characteristic C),

based on my experience that we have never brown-outs of all three phases wouldn't it make sense to replace the triple unit with three separate units to avoid all three phases tripping although only one phase was/is out of amp range?

what are the technical implications besides the fact that my layman's questions are a pain in the àrse?

[Crossy]

Naam, your well phrased questions are never a pain in any part of the anatomy

Do you have any genuine 3-phase appliances? (water heaters don't count)

If NO, then you could reasonably treat your supply as 3 separate single-phase supplies.

[Naam]

Do you have any genuine 3-phase appliances?

yes Crossy. due to the stupidity of my builder i have two (attic fan and whole-house fan). attic fan still exists but is not used, job is done by a single phase fan on timer. the motor of the belt driven whole-house fan will be replaced one of these days or weeks.

when sparky moderator "Forkinhades" visited my home i was told that both appliances can be modified to single phase. but i am not willing to carry out a lengthy and obvious difficult procedure.

the good news is that i can replace the triple unit with single ones (hopefully available locally).

[Naam]

there's still one unanswered question Crossy:

"why double wiring?"

[carlyai]

Have you got a circuit for your setup?

Would be easy to see why the piggyback wiring with a circuit.

[Naam]

see my posting #128

(no wiring diagram, sparkie who did the thingy installation dead).

[Crossy]

there's still one unanswered question Crossy:

"why double wiring?"

If the wiring really is just parallel, apart from minimising volt drop or cable being under size I have no idea.

But since it's on the outgoing side of the thingy, you're not going to be messing with it at this stage anyway.

[Naam]

there's still one unanswered question Crossy:

"why double wiring?"

If the wiring really is just parallel, apart from minimising volt drop or cable being under size I have no idea.

But since it's on the outgoing side of the thingy, you're not going to be messing with it at this stage anyway.

yes, parallel.

[Crossy]

there's still one unanswered question Crossy:

"why double wiring?"

If the wiring really is just parallel, apart from minimising volt drop or cable being under size I have no idea.

But since it's on the outgoing side of the thingy, you're not going to be messing with it at this stage anyway.

yes, parallel.

Is it possible that the thingy was originally going to feed two distribution boards and the design was changed after the wiring was in, spare wires parked on the terminals?

[Naam]

Is it possible that the thingy was originally going to feed two distribution boards and the design was changed after the wiring was in, spare wires parked on the terminals?

no, thingy only fed main distribution board. there was never any change. Carlyai also mentioned a "double whammy". but his case seems different and plausible.

I've got something similar, (like piggyback wiring) when I go from 3 phase to one phase to my gen set.

[Crossy]

Is it possible that the thingy was originally going to feed two distribution boards and the design was changed after the wiring was in, spare wires parked on the terminals?

no, thingy only fed main distribution board. there was never any change. Carlyai also mentioned a "double whammy". but his case seems different and plausible.

I've got something similar, (like piggyback wiring) when I go from 3 phase to one phase to my gen set.

Yeah, Carl has got a single-phase genset driving all three phases of his home via a 3-phase transfer switch linked on the genset input terminals.

Once upon a time when we were going to have 3-phase in our home I designed a unit to switch loads to the good phase(s) in the event of a low or absent phase. I never built it as PEA upgraded the village transformer and we could support our load on a single-phase supply. Could be the next "Thingy"

[carlyai]

I did see the post about your sparky leaving, but you will need a diagram for the grand and great grand kids.

I am sure my SWMBO sometimes only keeps me around as I'm the only one who knows how this 'factory' (3 phase out here must be a factory) is wired.

[Naam]

grand and great grand kids

unfortunately neither nor

[Naam]

Once upon a time when we were going to have 3-phase in our home I designed a unit to switch loads to the good phase(s) in the event of a low or absent phase. I never built it as PEA upgraded the village transformer and we could support our load on a single-phase supply. Could be the next "Thingy"

we have something like this in our home in India. whenever i see it i "admire" Indian ingenuity and advanced engineering how to select between three different phases and a genset.

but Pakistani engineering beats Hindustani engineering! many rainy seasons ago i rented a building in Jeddah to use as an office. 22 rooms out of which only 6 were airconditioned. we installed another 18 units each 24k btu/h not properly distributed across the three phases. one phase always tripped and people were complaining. one day Pakistani Master Chief Electrician reported "SAR! prublum salved Sar!

he replaced one of these

with

[Naam]

mission accomplished.

[Crossy]

So now Mr Thingy sees 220V on all phases?

A happy Thingy

EDIT Is that a GREEN wire I see Naam? E gads man, an earth, what were you thinking?

[Naam]

yes, Mr Thingy is satisfied and the green wire is an earth wire because the casings are meant to have a separate earth.

E gads man, an earth, what were you thinking?

i vas not zinking too mutch, but being a Tcherman und seeing an obvious earz konneckshun i zought if zey need an earz zey vill get vone. vee have earz galore (four real copper pipes with steel center).

small glitch: one of the units was delivered without fans and without a bypass switch. supplier has promised to exchange tomorrow (insha'allah!).

by the way, the units are getting quite warm, even when transforming down. an exhaust fan for this small room (it's actually a passage from the staff house to the main house) is mandatory.

[Naam]

success!