1. 1 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug IDEAL INDUSTRIES Author: Patrick Elliott Application Guide to Power Quality at the Plug

2. 2 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing A portion of a wiring system in the interior of a structure that extends from a final overload protective device to a plug receptacle or a load such as a lighting fixture, motor, or heater Branch circuit

3. 3 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing Three Possible Ways to Test Branch Circuits 1.Branch Circuit Integrity The physical structure of the branch circuit 2.Quality of the voltage supplied How connected equipment will perform 3.Profile the Loads on the Branch Circuit Measure the energy and the load on the circuit We will examine the first and second of these in the time we have today. Circuit Integrity

4. 4 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing Test the physical structure of the branch circuit Connections to receptacles and devices Connections to panel Capacity of Hot and Neutral  Age, type, length and size of conductor  Quality of connections, splices, pigtails, bonds Integrity of Ground Conductor HOW?? Circuit Integrity

5. 5 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Step 1: Test for correct wiring polarity Step 2: Make voltage measurements Step 3: Test for neutral / ground integrity Step 4: Test Voltage Drop Step 5: Measure circuit impedance Evaluating Branch Circuit Structure Branch Circuit Testing

6. 6 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Common receptacle tester Detects, as go-no-go test, Hot, Neutral and Ground There can be < 100,000 ohms on the ground and a standard receptacle tester with show the circuit to be OK Step 1: Wiring Polarity Test Branch Circuit Testing

7. 7 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Step 2: Measure Voltage Branch Circuit Testing

8. 8 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing General Purpose testers can’t identify a “False” or “bootleg” ground –Defined as an accidental short or improper bonding of ground to neutral conductors –Shows up as normally wired condition with general receptacle testers –Sensed by the new AFCI breakers, will trip an AFCI Test for Neutral and Ground Integrity

9. 9 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing Voltage Drop = V (no-load) – V (load) % Voltage Drop = Voltage Drop/ V (no-load) This way? Or This way? Step 4: Measure Voltage Drop

10. 10 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing Nor can they identify a neutral to ground bond –Glowing contacts in copper or aluminum wiring –High resistance in Back-wired devices like receptacle –Loose or corroded connections –Bad splices –Hot plugs, or high resistance contact between outlet to plug. A high resistance connection can result in hot spots or glowing connections which can breakdown insulation and create poor efficiency of the electrical system General tester can not identify high resistance or series faults

11. 11 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Branch Circuit Testing Step 5: Measure the resistance of each conductor Hot Conductor Neutral Conductor Ground

12. 12 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor What is Voltage Performance Monitoring? Why do I need to measure the integrity of the of my Voltage? What are the factors and features I need?

13. 13 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor Two Steps to test the Voltage Performance of the branch circuit: 1.The ability to capture and analyze Voltage Events 2.The ability to monitor the distortion or THD of the circuit Step 2: Voltage Performance

14. 14 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor Voltage performance? –Amplitude Must be measured over time. –Must meets some excepted standard –Example would be like the ITI (CBEMA) curve. What is Voltage performance?

15. 15 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor What Voltage Quality do we really need?

16. 16 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor What are these problems called? –Sag – low voltage for brief periods (dips) –Swell- high voltage for brief periods (surges) –Voltage Transient- impulses (spikes) –THD for Total Harmonic Distortion (noise)

17. 17 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor If outside the range, timer starts, measures in cycles per second to the end of the event are taking. When an event is detected, –The voltage of the event should be logged –The duration of the event should be logged –The day/date/time to the second of the event logged How do we compare voltage over time to these Standards

18. 18 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor Transient Voltages Measure and record the time and amplitude Transients cause failure of communication control and datacom devices Transients destroy insulation and capacitors Determine if transient protection is working (TVSS, SSDs)

19. 19 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor Measure at service entrance & points of connections IEEE 519 limits for voltage THD –< 5% for most facilities –<3% for Hospitals and Airports Total Harmonic Distortion

20. 20 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor Power Quality problems are very expensive, but…. UNTIL NOW Power quality required very expensive analyzers Computers to set them up, Software to analyze Experts to review the data Power Quality Monitors were too expensive for branch circuits

21. 21 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor

22. 22 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Features and Benefits World’s Simplest PQ Device –If you can use an outlet, you can use a VPM –PQ Expert is in the box! Easy to Use –Minimal Set Up –No need for Computer Interface –Captures only significant events

23. 23 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Voltage Performance Monitor Testing Our Voltage Quality No computer No software No setup Just the information you need

24. 24 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Breaker Finders And Tracers

25. 25 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug Innovative Clamps and Meters

26. 26 of 25 © 2007 Ideal Industries www.idealindustries.com Power Quality At the Plug THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND ATTENTION QUESTIONS PLEASE! Application Guide to Power Quality at the Plug