Ground fault alarm?

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GFM Add-on

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You might look at one of the TRAFOX units, http://www.trafox.fi/superintend/index.htm

I have been using them for several years. You will have to adjust the CT ratio,but the unit is stable, and has SPDT relays to drive alarms
or shunt trip breakers.

The rep in the US is Applied Power Technologies, Inc.
regards, madmike
 
The more sensitivity, the more false alarms.
If you can't find something that meets your specs, I can probably send you a free (for now) schematic for an interface to existing components. You buy the parts, assemble, test, waterproof as necessary.
 
disclaimer

disclaimer

From what I learned from another post, my offer of a schematic for an interface device for use between UL-approved devices or sensors may be in legal never-never land.
Sorry.
 
brian john said:
What level current are you looking for?
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I'm not 100% sure, Brian. Ideally, I'd like to be able to dial it down to 4ma, but it would be awesome if I could have a range up to maybe 200ma since I know this thing will alarm out right off the bat on most farms if put on the whole service and not individual panel feeders. I could certainly put several current sensing relays on the CT secondaries and have several lights on the front panel to correspond with various fault levels, sorta like the Homeland Security threat levels.

I'm definitely gonna build it, since it's simple enough to do, and dairy farmers are some of the best guys for trying out new gadgets.
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You know what that got me thinking with few related items Marc .,,

i don't know if this will work for ya but bear with me a sec.,,

what if you get 2 zero sequince CT's have one go to the milkhouse distubation centre and second one for rest of the sytem ? that way it will make it little more easier to troubleshooting it.

and have some sort of relay it will trip like 4ma with a warning light and second one with buzzer if go over 6-8ma range.

here a link what my POCO make a summiery on this http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/farm/measuring.aspx

and University of Wisconsin been rescherching alot on this topic for a quite a while.

I don't know if possiblty if your poco can add a islolated netual block device ?

but here a link from Ronk http://www.ronkelectrical.com/

you have to hit " other products " you will find line blocker i think it may help some of it also but not sure if your POCO allow to use this device


hope it will help you some of it

Merci, Marc
 
marc here is a couple of links to the reports I believe Jim is referring to

http://psc.wi.gov/utilityinfo/electric/newsInfo/document/strayVoltage/svUpdate2006.pdf

http://psc.wi.gov/utilityinfo/electric/newsInfo/document/strayVoltage/ph2paper.pdf

here is one done with MN & Wisc

http://www.mrec.org/archives/conference/2003/John_Roberts/vet_perspective_SV.pdf

I hope this helps and would be interested in what you come up with..

Also check out this link maybe it will help you in the sale of this system..

http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/farm/wiring.aspx
 
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cschmid said:
Also check out this link maybe it will help you in the sale of this system..
Click to expand...
Truth be told, I really don't want to "sell" this thing. I just want to build it to see if it's as cheap and easy as I think it probably is. If so, I can't believe that someone isn't making something like this already. The actual installation of the device is where a guy would run into a few shekels. There's a bit of trouble also due to the fact that the lion's share of farms have 3-wire distribution between the buildings.

Something like this would be a win-win for farmers and electricians. It would provide an enhanced level of safety for the livestock, and provide work in perpetuity for the electrician troubleshooting and repairing after each alarm event.

This proposed device would not give an early warning to all stray current (such as utility primary stray current), but it would provide a warning from stray current created on the farm itself. In my experience, limited though it may be, most stray current on the farm is a result of equipment and wiring owned by the farmer.
 
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let me know how it goes marc..around here the farms are almost non exsistant any more..the hobby farms are growing and the stray electrical on hoby farms are not the same as they are normally wired correctly..the biffest problem we find is the lack of proper installation..DYI'ers doing what they are not qualified to do..any one can be an electrician we dont understand why you guys need to charge that much money..yet who do you call when you need stray voltage busted..the stray voltage busters...:grin: remake of old movie..
 
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