Ok, I have found out a little more information. This job is for the government and they want to feed one small building. What I have been told is that there is hardly any load for it. For some reason they don't want to install high voltage at any cost. Don't know why, I am sure however they have reasons. I guess they want to run 500 MCM. Its just crazy that they would spend that kind of money to power up a little building that has a few lights and outlets. I just checked the numbers and 500 mcm is like 5lb a foot.
This is what I figured out, 500 MCM at 8000' you could run 30 amps of power at 460.
A couple of questions for you guys:
Transformers are almost 100% efficient right?
So if your transformed this power down from 460 3 wire to a 208/120 4 wire you would still have the 30 amps of power available on the secondary side right? We are still dealing with a VA issue.
Next questions that I can't understand well enough. How do you explain the concept of voltage drop vs amp draw? When we start pulling more amps, our voltage drop changes dramatically. I have always thought that as we we?start having more electrons bumping and pushing through the wire, (amps/current) our resistance to the flow increases. Is this correct. Hince, at 30 amps at 460 volts, we can run 8000' and have 3% drop total. But if we run AT 200 amps we are around 14.9%. More electrons pushing = more resistance to the wire.
Also, how do taps on the transformer work completely? If we are a little low after the run due to resistance of the wire, we can adjust the taps and secondary side to compensate. I know this is true, but how do you adjust for varying amp draw? Your voltage drop is going to change with your load, correct? If i were to put my meter on my load center in my house phase to phase and get 240, would not my meter voltage change considerable when I turned on my range and dryer?
Sorry this is going full circle, but its all sort of tying in to a good learning experience.
Electron theory, 101.
This is what I figured out, 500 MCM at 8000' you could run 30 amps of power at 460.
A couple of questions for you guys:
Transformers are almost 100% efficient right?
So if your transformed this power down from 460 3 wire to a 208/120 4 wire you would still have the 30 amps of power available on the secondary side right? We are still dealing with a VA issue.
Next questions that I can't understand well enough. How do you explain the concept of voltage drop vs amp draw? When we start pulling more amps, our voltage drop changes dramatically. I have always thought that as we we?start having more electrons bumping and pushing through the wire, (amps/current) our resistance to the flow increases. Is this correct. Hince, at 30 amps at 460 volts, we can run 8000' and have 3% drop total. But if we run AT 200 amps we are around 14.9%. More electrons pushing = more resistance to the wire.
Also, how do taps on the transformer work completely? If we are a little low after the run due to resistance of the wire, we can adjust the taps and secondary side to compensate. I know this is true, but how do you adjust for varying amp draw? Your voltage drop is going to change with your load, correct? If i were to put my meter on my load center in my house phase to phase and get 240, would not my meter voltage change considerable when I turned on my range and dryer?
Sorry this is going full circle, but its all sort of tying in to a good learning experience.
Electron theory, 101.