Key Questions to Ask When Ordering Power Quality Analyzer
Power Quality Questions and Answers - We Energies
- What is power quality?
- What is a power quality disturbance?
- Why is power quality so important?
- Shouldn't I expect We Energies to provide me with flawless power?
- What are the different types of power disturbances I can experience?
- What are the causes of power quality disturbances?
- How do I know if my business is at risk of power quality disturbances?
- What steps can I take to protect my facility's/home's electrical equipment from power quality disturbance?
- How does We Energies investigate a customer's power quality?
- How can I get help?
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Suggestions on Choosing a Power Analyzer 11 - Eng-Tips
Could someone suggest a power quality analyzer for the measurement of harmonics & energy? I have no budget as yet - simply looking for one which is reliable, rugged & preferably lightweight. Also, it must be able to datalogger upto 4 current and 4 voltage channels.
I've heard good things about the Dranetz-BMI , and am looking for opinions/feedback on some other choices which meet my criteria.
Hioki
A testing company recently used this one at our plant. It provided us a months worth of test data from the meter in spreadsheet form.
Thinking we might want to purchase one ourselves - I contacted the local rep. I was allowed to use the same meter on a trial basis for a few weeks. They had a really good website to show you how to use it. You schedule an appointment online and they had someone on the live that talked you through it and answered any questions.
The meter and the software are easy to use and provided all the data we were looking for. It comes in a hearty case is lightweight.
Depending on your needs, you may also want to check out the Fluke 43B meter. It reads a single current and voltage. About $ The RPM is a great meter and very versitile. It is however more of a $20k meter. I have used both.
******Another very economical approach********
There are many 3 phase switchboard power meters available that in essence do the same thing. You can easily purchase the required CTs and connect to either direct (up to 600V) and use appropriate CTs. Most of the great features of the $20k set can be made for about $4k. I have had some problems with the Dranetz/BMI PP. It seems they haven't put an anti-alias filter before the S/H and A/D. So, when there are HF components (like you get from a PWM inverter), the HF components are folded into the harmonics frequency range. The result is that you get a higher THD reading than you actually have on the grid.
A sure sign is that you have an unrealistically high percentage of even harmonics. I often see more than one percent even harmonics on grids where I know there are none.
An example is given below.
Please note that the "Even contribution" is higher than the "Odd contribution" If you get that, you had better check with an instrument that has faster sampling.
Gunnar Englund
--------------------------------------
100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again... I just used the Dranetz BMI PX5 series. I would recommend against this unit, based upon the user interface and documentation. The fundamental problem is that nothing is particualarly intuitive, so you have to hunt around to get aything done. The manual was little more than a collection of screen prints from the device. This means that if you have a question about what you see on the screen, you get to search for a couple of minutes to see the same exact thing on paper. Thanks for that Dranetz!
I ended up getting good data after multiple iterations. And it showed me what I wanted to see. But, even then, the viewer / report writer software was less than intuitive.
Some of my colleagues have used RPMs and speak highly of them. Yes, JBinCA.
I use the PP a lot and I should have got used to it. But, as you say, it is not very intuitive. I prefer not to have customers around when I set it up - they would immediately lose confidence in me if they saw me hunting around.
Still, it does its work (exception for the even harmonics anomaly described above) and it is a recognized instrument in this part of the world. Using a recognized instrument is sometimes necessary. I could do the same job using an oscilloscope or recorder with FFT capabilities - but my customers wouldn't accept it.
Gunnar Englund
--------------------------------------
100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again... This is the descendent of my much-loved Voltech PM analyser. I haven't had a chance to play with this new one, mainly due to having no viable excuse for buying one, but if it is half as good as the PM was when it came out then the PM is definitely worth a look. Voltech in the UK used to have a loan instrument which you could take for a few days to test in your own application - I expect they still do.
The instrument I've got has proven itself very versatile, reliable and robust, features I have come to appreciate it for. It's main downside is the size and weight compared to some of the hand-helds.
----------------------------------
Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet... We have 3 PPs - Agree that the customer should not see you set them up, but they have produced excellent results when in used combination with the Dran-View software. The PX5 is also a sharp unit and easier to use than the PP.
Either way, no unit has the "cheeseburger" button! Some further feedback on the Dranetz PP. We use these units for analysing power quality issues in conjunction with PWM AC drive installations around the world. Generally the data compiled is pretty good, I would concur with Gunnar that the spurious readings on THD is a bit concerning. We connect some of the optional modem units so we can monitor remotely and (after a lot of messing around)they do seem to work ok. However, the main pain-in-the-a__ is the Dranview software. The latest (I think) is Dranview-6 and if you happen to save data in this version and the person you wish to share it with only has Dranview-4, then they cannot view it. The backwards compatibiity is something Dranetz seem to have overlooked and casues a few headaches as the person with dranview-4 can only see this with -6 and this costs a few ££'s/$$$'s/''''s
I've heard good things about the Dranetz-BMI , and am looking for opinions/feedback on some other choices which meet my criteria.
Hioki
A testing company recently used this one at our plant. It provided us a months worth of test data from the meter in spreadsheet form.
Thinking we might want to purchase one ourselves - I contacted the local rep. I was allowed to use the same meter on a trial basis for a few weeks. They had a really good website to show you how to use it. You schedule an appointment online and they had someone on the live that talked you through it and answered any questions.
The meter and the software are easy to use and provided all the data we were looking for. It comes in a hearty case is lightweight.
Depending on your needs, you may also want to check out the Fluke 43B meter. It reads a single current and voltage. About $ The RPM is a great meter and very versitile. It is however more of a $20k meter. I have used both.
******Another very economical approach********
There are many 3 phase switchboard power meters available that in essence do the same thing. You can easily purchase the required CTs and connect to either direct (up to 600V) and use appropriate CTs. Most of the great features of the $20k set can be made for about $4k. I have had some problems with the Dranetz/BMI PP. It seems they haven't put an anti-alias filter before the S/H and A/D. So, when there are HF components (like you get from a PWM inverter), the HF components are folded into the harmonics frequency range. The result is that you get a higher THD reading than you actually have on the grid.
A sure sign is that you have an unrealistically high percentage of even harmonics. I often see more than one percent even harmonics on grids where I know there are none.
An example is given below.
Please note that the "Even contribution" is higher than the "Odd contribution" If you get that, you had better check with an instrument that has faster sampling.
Gunnar Englund
--------------------------------------
100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again... I just used the Dranetz BMI PX5 series. I would recommend against this unit, based upon the user interface and documentation. The fundamental problem is that nothing is particualarly intuitive, so you have to hunt around to get aything done. The manual was little more than a collection of screen prints from the device. This means that if you have a question about what you see on the screen, you get to search for a couple of minutes to see the same exact thing on paper. Thanks for that Dranetz!
I ended up getting good data after multiple iterations. And it showed me what I wanted to see. But, even then, the viewer / report writer software was less than intuitive.
Some of my colleagues have used RPMs and speak highly of them. Yes, JBinCA.
I use the PP a lot and I should have got used to it. But, as you say, it is not very intuitive. I prefer not to have customers around when I set it up - they would immediately lose confidence in me if they saw me hunting around.
Still, it does its work (exception for the even harmonics anomaly described above) and it is a recognized instrument in this part of the world. Using a recognized instrument is sometimes necessary. I could do the same job using an oscilloscope or recorder with FFT capabilities - but my customers wouldn't accept it.
Gunnar Englund
--------------------------------------
100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again... This is the descendent of my much-loved Voltech PM analyser. I haven't had a chance to play with this new one, mainly due to having no viable excuse for buying one, but if it is half as good as the PM was when it came out then the PM is definitely worth a look. Voltech in the UK used to have a loan instrument which you could take for a few days to test in your own application - I expect they still do.
The instrument I've got has proven itself very versatile, reliable and robust, features I have come to appreciate it for. It's main downside is the size and weight compared to some of the hand-helds.
----------------------------------
Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet... We have 3 PPs - Agree that the customer should not see you set them up, but they have produced excellent results when in used combination with the Dran-View software. The PX5 is also a sharp unit and easier to use than the PP.
Either way, no unit has the "cheeseburger" button! Some further feedback on the Dranetz PP. We use these units for analysing power quality issues in conjunction with PWM AC drive installations around the world. Generally the data compiled is pretty good, I would concur with Gunnar that the spurious readings on THD is a bit concerning. We connect some of the optional modem units so we can monitor remotely and (after a lot of messing around)they do seem to work ok. However, the main pain-in-the-a__ is the Dranview software. The latest (I think) is Dranview-6 and if you happen to save data in this version and the person you wish to share it with only has Dranview-4, then they cannot view it. The backwards compatibiity is something Dranetz seem to have overlooked and casues a few headaches as the person with dranview-4 can only see this with -6 and this costs a few ££'s/$$$'s/''''s