Electricity - The 5A/15A and the 15A/45A Single Phase.

[Formaleins]

We have two meters here, one is the normal single phase 15/45A supply and the other is the cheapo 5/15A supply which is for basic agriculture / non domestic use.

 

Anyone know how this system works? - How do they limit or regulate this 5/15A thing? To me it just doesn't seem to work, and all around my place a lot of locals are running similar sorts of setups to me all on the 5/15A supply.

 

I have 3 wells for ground water / irrigation, 2 of which are both hooked up to the 5/15 A supply. Both pumps are 2HP and are rated at 1100W (11Amp) and 1500W (14,5Amp). Now comes the discrepancy.

 

On power up both motors take in excess of 34 Amperes momentarily when starting, then once they are settled they run between 9.4Amp and 10.8 Amp.

 

Both are running at the same time off the 5/15A supply and I see no problems at all, meter is running - cables are fine, not too warm.

 

So what is the reason for the 5/15A rating, it isn't as if there are any fuses to the metres, hell, the first breaker that got installed on this setup is a two copper bar type fuse rated at 60A!!! You would be fried charcoal before that thing melted!

[CharlieH]

WRONG FORUM.

 

MOVED

[Crossy]

The meter ratings are calibration current / maximum current. So a 5/15 is calibrated at 5A and has a maximum of 15A.

 

That said, meters are very robust, factoring a continuous 100% overload into the design is the norm, it's not actually going to go phut before maybe >>200%.

 

BUT if you are running like this, accuracy will be impaired, you can bet they don't read low.

 

Your two pumps are well within the capability of your 5/15, worry ye not

 

[Kwasaki]

12 hours ago, Formaleins said:

So what is the reason for the 5/15A rating

Crossy spot on and as l see it my family next door get free electric on 5/15 because they don't have air-cons, microwaves, 7 kilo showers, electric grills etc so they don't use many units.

5/15 on my small farm has a medium household fridge, two well water pumps, l run a fan sometimes and leave lights on all night, never paid a bill yet.

15/45 in house always have to pay used or not. 

[KhunBENQ]

13 hours ago, Formaleins said:

You would be fried charcoal before that thing melted!

You would be fried at 5 A also

Such breakers are for line protection (protecting lines from melting/burning).

And yes at 60 A some lines could have smoked beforehand.

 

For saving your life you need a 30 mA (0.03 A) RCB(O).

[wpcoe]

10 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Crossy spot on and as l see it my family next door get free electric on 5/15 because they don't have air-cons, microwaves, 7 kilo showers, electric grills etc so they don't use many units.

5/15 on my small farm has a medium household fridge, two well water pumps, l run a fan sometimes and leave lights on all night, never paid a bill yet.

15/45 in house always have to pay used or not. 

???  You mean on a 5/15 meter if the usage is below a certain level, they send you a zero baht bill, whereas on at 15/45 meter you pay even in a no-use month?

 

ISTR a few years ago that PEA had a limited-term deal where if the bill was under a certain amount (B50?) they waived it.  Does that apply to 5/15 meters now, as well?

[Kwasaki]

12 hours ago, wpcoe said:

???  You mean on a 5/15 meter if the usage is below a certain level, they send you a zero baht bill, whereas on at 15/45 meter you pay even in a no-use month?

 

ISTR a few years ago that PEA had a limited-term deal where if the bill was under a certain amount (B50?) they waived it.  Does that apply to 5/15 meters now, as well?

Firstly your right and explained better, l thought peeps would know that below a level of units zero bill. 

 

Secondary not sure what you mean but to this day most of my family still get zero bills and we got our 5/15 farm electric bill yesterday with units used also zero. 

 

 

[wpcoe]

2 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Firstly your right and explained better, l thought peeps would know that below a level of units zero bill. 

 

Secondary not sure what you mean but to this day most of my family still get zero bills and we got our 5/15 farm electric bill yesterday with units used also zero. 

 

 

I'm on a 15/45 meter and got a bill last month for B43 (or maybe it was B47?  I can't find it right now, but it was under B50).  So, I was trying to determine if it were currently true that (only) 5/15 meters got the free pass on low bills.

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, wpcoe said:

 So, I was trying to determine if it were currently true that (only) 5/15 meters got the free pass on low bills.

As far l know 15/45 meter users will always pay something, when we was in England way we got cut off ( another long story ) when we got back since then we have had to pay whatever the reading.

Our bill this month was made up from 6 readings to = baht of 1609.05 + 38.22 -- 154.75 = 1492.52 + 7% tax @ 104.48 = 1597.00 total.

[Formaleins]

22 hours ago, wpcoe said:

???  You mean on a 5/15 meter if the usage is below a certain level, they send you a zero baht bill, whereas on at 15/45 meter you pay even in a no-use month?

 

ISTR a few years ago that PEA had a limited-term deal where if the bill was under a certain amount (B50?) they waived it.  Does that apply to 5/15 meters now, as well?

5/15 always were like this as far as I remember, at least 8 years? I may be wrong but I don't think my MIL has paid for electric ever!

[Formaleins]

3 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

As far l know 15/45 meter users will always pay something, when we was in England way we got cut off ( another long story ) when we got back since then we have had to pay whatever the reading.

Our bill this month was made up from 6 readings to = baht of 1609.05 + 38.22 -- 154.75 = 1492.52 + 7% tax @ 104.48 = 1597.00 total.

15/45 - Correct You always pay something. At least here in Chiang Mai anyway. You can save a bit with the current FT charge being negative these days rather than positive.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Formaleins

[Formaleins]

On ‎02‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 6:32 AM, Crossy said:

The meter ratings are calibration current / maximum current. So a 5/15 is calibrated at 5A and has a maximum of 15A.

 

That said, meters are very robust, factoring a continuous 100% overload into the design is the norm, it's not actually going to go phut before maybe >>200%.

 

BUT if you are running like this, accuracy will be impaired, you can bet they don't read low.

 

Your two pumps are well within the capability of your 5/15, worry ye not

 

Cheers,

When we were building our house here years ago we only had the 5/15 and it was used to power everything...130A welders etc. I got fined 600 Baht from PEA, but I think it was because someone had tampered with the seal rather than overloading it!

I was just surprised that a 34 Amp start up didn't cause a problem, as one of the pumps is on a safety breaker that should trip at 30A.

 

I ran one of the pumps out of the well, the 2HP 1100 Watt machine (no water, only the motor) and it just draws 4 amps.

So I will just continue as is, 22A .....see what happens.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Formaleins

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Formaleins said:

15/45 - Correct You always pay something. At least here in Chiang Mai anyway. You can save a bit with the current FT charge being negative these days rather than positive.

Don't understand sorry.