Help!!!!

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geoffgelectric said:
I oversized my feeders to the 200amp sub and I ran 1awg to the Infratech 125amp control panel which is only 2’ from the 200amp sub anyway. I spoke with Infratech 5 times already and they claim it’s a POCO issue.
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IMHO Infratech is sort of passing the buck.

Their system is working as it was designed.

The POCO system sounds like it is working correctly, and voltage swings are within the normal tolerance range.

So IMHO they can legally say 'not our problem'.

But the load characteristics of their system, functioning normally, on a power supply which is in its normal tolerance range, cause enough disturbance that normal lighting loads are interfered with.

They should be working with you to fix this problem, otherwise their product is going to get a bad rep with wealthy residential customers.

They should be able to supply you with specific information, such as 'is the controller using phase angle control, burst firing, etc?' Is the controller solid state or a simple 'bimetallic infinite control'? Do they have any filtering hardware or system alterations which can reduce problems with other systems?

@geoffgelectric : What information can you provide about the specifics of the installed system?

-Jon
 
It would seem to me that this is an issue tech support should be aware of (ie the heater control).
Who purchased the heater?
Of course you wired it and are then responsible…,
 
Do you have lutron lighting controls? Here's a guy with the exact same issue as you.

Infratech Heaters

I searched and did not see anything posted so.... Infratech heaters can cause "weird" occurrences (Flickering in lighting if heater is anything but 100% or Off) in Lutron Lighting systems, especially if they are using their proprietary controls. We contacted Infratech and after some cajoling...
forums.lutron.com
 
If the OP is going to add a capacitor bank how would it be sized?
I know in theory C =It/Δ V
Voltage drop (Δ V) would be 3 Volts (239.2 - 236.9) , but how much current (i) and time (t)?
100A and 5 AC cycles ? Just a guess.
 
A capacitor bank won't help with voltage drop across multiple AC cycles. The C = I t/ delta V is for DC filtering. Perhaps if the capacitor were combined with a suitable inductor to make a circuit tuned for 60Hz, you could create a 'tank circuit' which would maintain steady power flow into the system even as the heaters cycle on and off. At those frequencies and currents you are talking about a _huge_ filter which probably won't play nice with switching on its output.

If you are trying to solve this problem with energy storage to stabilize the power flow to the heaters, then you probably need to do something like rectify the supply voltage to DC and then modulate the DC flowing to the heaters. This lets you store energy with a big capacitor bank, and use high frequency PWM to minimize the needed size of this bank. Of course now you are designing a very expensive custom controller.

IMHO the next step is for the OP to get the supplier to explain exactly what control scheme is presently in use, so that the necessary fixes can be figured out. We don't know if we are dealing with high frequency noise from rapid switching or lower frequency transients from burst firing or _mechanical_ PWM control.

-Jon
 
winnie said:
IMHO the next step is for the OP to get the supplier to explain exactly what control scheme is presently in use, so that the necessary fixes can be figured out. We don't know if we are dealing with high frequency noise from rapid switching or lower frequency transients from burst firing or _mechanical_ PWM control.

-Jon
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This!

need to put a scope on the output of the controller and see what exactly its doing. I would think it would be a chopped sinewave like a light dimmer, but the symptoms say otherwise.
 
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