Want to measure current draw on three phase power panel

Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the

1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

formatting link

Any other suggestions?

Reply to
Taxed and Spent
Loading thread data ...

Since the contractor is too cheap to buy current logging equipment I guess someone could take a meter reading every hour or so.

Reply to
joe

I have used Dranetz equipment in the past for this.

See:

formatting link

These are less $$ than Fluke and can be rented for a short period rather than purchased.

Dan

Reply to
dansabrservices

You can use a clamp on the phases when you think you are close to peak load or you can just look at the accumulated usage from the PoCo meter but a logger is the only way to be sure you see peak loads.

Reply to
gfretwell

...

Ask the utility if they'll do it for him.

As another said, rent the gear for a month; there are all kinds of outfits that do such.

On the cheap, use a single phase clampon meter with a usb port and a laptop...

Reply to
dpb

and another way is to look at the equipment that the tenant has and add up the current of the stuff you figure might be on at the same time

m
Reply to
makolber

Power company for one. If they are running equipment like an air compressor, the suppliers will do it for you. There are outfits that do energy audits that will do it and also find ways to reduce load.

How big an outfit is this? 1000 A at 460V will run a lot of equipment. We have 600A and run 14 molding machines, 1 150hp compressor, 1 75hp compressor, 2 boilers, assorted pumps, cooling towers, lighting and more.

I've had 1 week monitoring and never paid anyone anything.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I have zero experience with three phase... What info can you get out of the utility meter? Old meters that have a wheel can be read using something like

formatting link
I have the older model on my two-phase meter.

Mine's not three phase. It's digital, but it has an IR LED that blinks according to the power consumption. I programmed an old Palm Pilot to read the IR and graph/log consumption. Duct taped it to the meter along with a much bigger battery to get enough run time.

If the meter has the blinky IR LED and you can get your hands on an old palm pilot or Handspring Visor, email me.

Written in basic, and trivial. Problem is bootstrapping the palm to get it all loaded. I'm not sure that the basic interpreter is still easily available on the web. I had to load it on a new palm and IR it over the the old palm. I'm not 100% sure that I can reconstruct the details of that process.

FWIW, when considering total loading, don't underestimate the peak transient loads that happen when big motors start. Those are hard to capture with simple equipment.

Reply to
mike

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.