IR HEater integration

[heaterdesigner]

Hello

I am working on a project that requires (4) 2KW IR heaters be controlled. We are at the point to select how to feed the system and at what voltage, phasing. We would like to run the system at 230Vac 3-phase.

The heaters are all rated 2KW @ 230Vac. Because there are 4 heaters we are not sure how to wire them to take advantage of 3-phase. There is an additional fly in the ointment that the heaters need to be bank selectable in banks of 2, 3, or all 4 at a time. Currently it was laid out as 4 heaters in parallel. This will not take advantage of the 3-phase system because they are parallel across 1 phase of 230V.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

 

[LarryFine]

There's no way to avoid uneven distribution with a 3ph service, unless you have load quantities in multiples of three. In your case, the fourth unit will have to parallel one of the other three.

Your best bet is to place the two sharing the same pair of lines on the lesser loaded of the three phases. In other words, whichever phase is most heavily loaded, place the pair on the other two phases.

 

[heaterdesigner]

calculations??

calculations??

What does this do for the total load on the system? How do the calculations look for the parallel case versus the unbalanced 3-phase 'delta' layout?

For the parallel case it seems that at 2KW/230V=8.7A per element or a total of 4*8.7=34.8A total. At the rated 230V*34.8A=8KVA required?

How will it look for the delta configuration?

2kW/230*1.732=5A per element?