Portable Equipment Detects Power Sags and Spikes





By James Piper, P.E.  
OTHER PARTS OF THIS ARTICLEPt. 1: IAQ Monitors Help Create Healthy Indoor EnvironmentsPt. 2: Temperature Monitors and Thermal Imagers Identify Hot SpotsPt. 3: This PagePt. 4: Test Equipment Helps Develop Preventive Maintenance Programs


As more facilities use electronic and computer-based systems to monitor operations, they will require greater amounts of high-quality, stable power. Problems such as sags, spikes, transients and harmonics can easily disrupt the operation of this equipment.

Traditionally, it was difficult to track the causes of these problems. New-generation, portable equipment has improved to the point where technicians can use it to measure and log current, voltage, power factor and energy, while watching for voltage transients and other related problems.

Units offer cycle-by-cycle power analysis and can identify transients depending on the sampling rate, with the more sensitive units offering up to 512 samples per cycle. Most units offer eight sampling channels — four for voltage, four for current. Built-in memory allows users to collect and store data over an extended period.




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  posted on 12/1/2008   Article Use Policy




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