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Phase ground lamps circuit for 600V Delta system

F

Fred

Hi All!

Installing an outdoor construction power transformer...4160 Delta/600 Delta.

Need phase ground lamps on the 600V side.

Anyone know of a circuit diagram...specs for a simple phase loss lamp box?

Thanks

Best to All

Fred
 
A

AlanBown

Fred said:
Hi All!

Installing an outdoor construction power transformer...4160 Delta/600 Delta.

Need phase ground lamps on the 600V side.

Anyone know of a circuit diagram...specs for a simple phase loss lamp box?

Thanks

Best to All

Fred

I have never seen a phase ground 'LAMP" or clamp for that matter. Joslen
sells a lot of clamps that are used for grounding cables.
All of the transformers I have worked around have landing areas in the
secondary side for the phases, neutral and a grounding bar for the grounds.
3/8 bolts, nuts, washers and lock washers with the appropriate landing lug
was all that was needed.
 
C

Charles Perry

AlanBown said:
I have never seen a phase ground 'LAMP" or clamp for that matter. Joslen
sells a lot of clamps that are used for grounding cables.
All of the transformers I have worked around have landing areas in the
secondary side for the phases, neutral and a grounding bar for the
grounds.
3/8 bolts, nuts, washers and lock washers with the appropriate landing lug
was all that was needed.
He is talking about lamps that tell you if you have an inadvertant ground
connection on delta circuits.

Unfortunately, I don't have a handy reference for the circuit.

Charles Perry P.E.
 
F

Fred

Yes, thanks Charles...that is what I'm looking for...just had a
thought...how about 600V rated candelabra base lampholders with NE2 screw
shell lamps...shell to ground and contacts on each to A,B, C??

Think I may have seen resistors in series with the lamps as well in the
past....wonder what size, value of resistors would be appropriate??

Fred
 
O

operator jay

snip
but 347-volt bulbs are not cheap, and do poorly at low wattage. These
would need to be incandescent bulbs.
snip

Off subject:

Could you point out some website discussing 347V incandescent. I never
called for incandescent in 347V because I understood it was not available.
I don't know why it would be so hard to achieve.

j
 
J

John Gilmer

Well, a version of a circuit for an detection of problems in an isolated
power supply (for an operating room) might be appropriate. (I saw this in a
NEC handbook of a few years (decades?) back.

Basically, with you take your "floating" delta source and "center ground" it
via a "Y" resistance network. The value of the resistance in each leg will
be a function of the desired sensitivity, maximum leakage during a ground
fault and such.

A second "Y" resistor network is also connected to the delta supply. The
center of this "Y" is your "sensing" point. A voltage detector is
connected between ground (and the first "Y" center) and the center of the
second "Y".

If there is no leakage, everything is balanced and your voltage detector see
zero volts. If the delta source suffers unsymetrical leakage, a voltage
will appear between ground the center of the second "Y".

The voltage sensor can trigger an alarm or whatever. The sensor could be a
relay coil. The relay can be made to latch up by having an extra set of
contacts transfer the grounded side of the coil to one of the phases of the
delta.
 
D

Don Kelly

| Installing an outdoor construction power transformer...4160 Delta/600 Delta.
|
| Need phase ground lamps on the 600V side.

My non-engineering guess:

Get 4 347-volt bulbs. Wire 3 of them in a WYE arrangement to the three
phase lines. Wire the 4th bulb between the star point and ground. Label
the first three A and B and C. Label the 4th as G. You should see dim
light in A and B and C, and no light in G, in the normal case. In the
case of one phase faulting to ground, you should see them deviate towards
no light in the faulted phase, and light in G, varying depending on the
degree of fault impedance.

This setup is subject to false negatives. If bulb G has burned out, it
won't show a fault. Multiple bulbs in parallel helps reduce the risk,
but 347-volt bulbs are not cheap, and do poorly at low wattage. These
would need to be incandescent bulbs.

Three test switches that connect a heavy duty impedance to ground (be
sure to choose values that won't cause a problem if 2 or 3 switches
are closed at the same time) can be used to verify if the bulbs are
working.


| Anyone know of a circuit diagram...specs for a simple phase loss lamp box?

Loss of phase on the primary would give you mixed voltages at single
phase on the secondary. If phase B goes out, you would see 300 volts
on A-B and B-C. The simple circuit would be 3 600 volt bulbs in delta,
and watch for 2 of them going very dim; their common phase being the
lost one.
http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
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Your idea of a Y set of lamps is good. However, there is no need for a
neutral to ground lamp and use of such may lead to questionable situations.

Suppose we have what you describe. Normally, the 3 lamps would see 347V and
the G lamp would be dark as there would be little or no neutral current to
ground. This is as you say. Now consider a solid fault on phase C. There are
two parallel impedances (lamps) between neutral and ground. Effectively C
would be at ground potential. The result would be something like 150V
between C and the neutral point while the A to N and B to N voltages would
be about 370V. The ground and C lamps would be of equal brightness. If the
ground impedance was infinite, then we have the normal situation. The
voltage of the C lamp under fault would be between 347 and 150V while the
voltage of the A and B lamps would be between 370 and 347V corresponding- I
haven't worked out the relative brightness balance between the ground and C
lamps in intermediate cases.
If phase C was open, then the AC and BC voltages would be 300V as you have
indicated but the C to neutral voltage would be 0 . As there is no ground
loop, there will be no neutral to ground current so the neutral will be at
ground potential (and A, B will be at 300V to ground).
Of course, any other grounded loads on the system will have a considerable
effect.

Suppose that the neutral is tied directly to ground with no lamp. This has
the effect of holding phase to ground voltages at 347V. In normal operation,
the 3 lamps will see 347V. If phase C is solidly grounded, then the C lamp
will be out and the A and B lamps will see 600V. As long as fault impedance
is low compared to the lamp impedance, this would be the approximate case.
Again with infinite ground impedance, the normal situation results.

In the case of an open on phase C, the situation would be the same as with a
lamp in the neutral to ground path.

Saving is 1 lamp and probably a more sure indication of a fault. Problem is
that the lamps must take 600V. Neons with resistors might work better than,
say, 5 -120V bulbs in series.

Anyhow- check this out- no guarantees are given for the analysis which was
done fairly crudely and may be affected by wine :).
 
L

Louis Bybee

HorneTD said:
The full blown version uses relays as detectors with one relay in
between the phase and ground on each leg. One contact of the relay
energizes the alarm buss wire which in turn lights a light indicating
the faulted phase by using another contact of the phase relay that is
not pulled in because it is on the grounded phase. The alarm buss also
powers an alarm sounder via a silencing relay that can be energized from
the alarm buss using a momentary contact switch and holds itself closed
using one of it's own contacts until power is cut off from the two
pulled in alarm relays by deenergizing the circuits and clearing the fault.



The simple ones consist of two lamps in series per phase, grounded in
between the two lamps, and a fuse at each phase lead. Each lamp is rated
at phase voltage so they all (6) burn very dim until one phase is
grounded. Then the two lamps closest to the grounded phase leg go out,
and the remaining lamp in each phase closest to the grounded leg burns
at normal brightness.

I haven't seen any lately, but of the two types I've seen in the past I
preferred one where lamp modules were used that contained a transformer
with a low voltage lamp. I can't feature the design with full voltage
lamps at 600v being available anymore let alone acceptable to any AHJ!

Louis
 
D

Don Kelly

I see what you are saying. There being 2 lamps (C and G) in parallel between
phase C and the star point (I guess that's what you are labelling N), that
star point is pulled closer to C, raising the voltages to lamps A and B on
their respective phases.

So 347 volt lamps, could be risky there ... as risk as running 120 volt lamps
on 127 volts.



It was avoiding the 600 volt case that I put lamp G between the star point
and EGC/earth.
------
Got your point
-----
I was thinking in terms of the need to have 2 347 volt lamps (or 277+347) in
series for the solidly grounded star point as being 6 lamps, not expecting
to find 600 volt ones. I was trying to save 2 lamps.



Now that I think about it as you describe, it's obvious lamps A and B get
more voltage than the normal L-N voltage when a solid ground fault on C
lets C and G work together to pull the star point over towards C.

I don't think I would want to put multiple 120 volt lamps in series as one
could get substantial voltage across a burned out filament. So maybe the
way to go is three big resistors and 3 120 volt lamps (A,B,C), or three
600->120 volt transformers and the same lamps.
----------
I have to agree with you on that- however use of a smaller wattage resistor
and a neon might work well.
The lamp approach was one that was used with early systems (120 or 240V)
which were generally delta. It may be that more sophistication might
actually be more economical and reliable.

--
Don Kelly
[email protected]
remove the urine to answer
http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
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P

PCK

why mess around with 600 volt
it really makes a mess when things go bad
Square D GFI Panel is what is used around here
only use approved equipment on this voltage
 
O

operator jay

PCK said:
why mess around with 600 volt
it really makes a mess when things go bad
Square D GFI Panel is what is used around here
only use approved equipment on this voltage

It appears the OP may be in Canada and you may be in New York. In most of
Canada messing around with 480 volt really makes a mess when things go bad.
 
D

daestrom

Don Kelly said:

In the Navy, we had 120V-delta connected three-phase 'lighting' transformers
supplying lights and misc 120V loads. To test for grounds, we had three 12V
lights in series with 3 resistors, tied in a star formation. The center of
the star was connected to a momentary, normally open push-button whose other
side was ground.

As auxilary electrician, for a couple of patrols, I had to push that button
every hour on watch and note whether the brightness of the lights changed.
If there was a significant change, I had to log it and report a ground on
the system and we'd have to perform 'ground isolating' to find it. Once,
the ground turned out to be one of the transformer secondarys and we had to
re-wire it open-delta, the loss in capacity meant we ran with many lights
off (the 'mood lighting' was the subject of many jokes that patrol).

Ah, those were the days.... (NOT!!!)

daestrom
 
B

Ben Miller

I wonder why delta is still popular, as opposed to getting the same from
a wye, e.g. 600Y/347 instead of 600D, or 480Y/277 instead of 480D. For
240 delta with a 120 volt tap, that I can understand as a cheaper way to
mix 120 volt lights and three phase power at correct voltage (going wye
means either under power three phase loads at 208 volts, or get 240Y/139
which can't be used on lighting at all).

I see ungrounded deltas in old industrial buildings in Chicago. These
systems were installed in the 40's and 50's. Typically 12kV into the vault,
feeding a 480 delta transformer. The original facilities had heavy
three-phase loads, so there was no attempt to add the lighting loads to the
same transformer. They installed a second transformer for 240/120
single-phase loads.

Today, many of these buildings are being converted to multi-use commercial
application, where most of the loads are single-phase. They either add
480-240/120 single-phase transformers feeding various panels, or replace the
service with 208/120. In the latter case, the few three-phase loads, such as
elevators or a/c, run on the 208 with no problems.

Ben Miller
 
P

Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Fred said:
Hi All!

Installing an outdoor construction power transformer...4160 Delta/600 Delta.

Need phase ground lamps on the 600V side.

Anyone know of a circuit diagram...specs for a simple phase loss lamp box?

Thanks

Best to All

Fred

You might want to consider an impedance grounding system (in addition to
an alarm). By itself, an alarm might suffer from false fault indications
if the phase to ground capacitance is sufficient and unbalanced.
 
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