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Leviton Load Shedding

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Doc13067

Doc13067

Senior Member
Location
Bucks County/Philadelphia, PA USA
Does anyone know how the Leviton smart breakers handle load shedding? I’m designing a generator job in which the panel needs to be completely replaced because I cannot separate the EGCs and neutrals without a big mess. since I told the client we need a new load center in order to get the generator and ATS installed and he’s going to need about 6 load shedding modules I thought it might save some labor if we put in a Leviton smart panel (I love them) and smart breakers on each circuit I need to shed. But I can’t find any info that says whether or not they would allow the circuit to stay on/turn back on if the generator is not struggling.

So my main question is will Leviton smart breakers that are connected to the ATS with the blue wire simply lock out any smart breakers that are set to “load shed” or will they behave like Generac SMMs and have available priority numbers to shed loads in a certain hierarchy and will they either do nothing or restore power if/when the generator is not struggling.
 
brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
I briefly scanned their product docs and it appears to accept a single contact closure interface to disconnect loads, meaning there is no way to prioritize them and turn back on as needed. I may be wrong, but the way it reads is that when on gen power you will disconnect all loads set as “non-essential” and everything else stays on.

Your best bet is to use the gen manufacturer’s load shed options.
 
V

VirutalElectrician

Senior Member
Location
Mpls, MN
Occupation
Sparky - Trying to be retired
brantmacga said:
I briefly scanned their product docs and it appears to accept a single contact closure interface to disconnect loads, meaning there is no way to prioritize them and turn back on as needed. I may be wrong, but the way it reads is that when on gen power you will disconnect all loads set as “non-essential” and everything else stays on.

Your best bet is to use the gen manufacturer’s load shed options.
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It sucks that all these companies can't get together and make all their stuff interopable.

Smart breakers and generators are a natural fit.
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
VirutalElectrician said:
It sucks that all these companies can't get together and make all their stuff interopable.

Smart breakers and generators are a natural fit.
Click to expand...
Probably not work too well anyway, the delay to boot up the controller may not be fast enough to open the breakers before the generator faults out after transfer. Electrically held load shedding would be the best, at least it would give some delay.
 
V

VirutalElectrician

Senior Member
Location
Mpls, MN
Occupation
Sparky - Trying to be retired
hillbilly1 said:
Probably not work too well anyway, the delay to boot up the controller may not be fast enough to open the breakers before the generator faults out after transfer. Electrically held load shedding would be the best, at least it would give some delay.
Click to expand...
UPS on the controller.
 
tortuga

tortuga

Code Historian
Location
Oregon
Occupation
Electrical Design
hillbilly1 said:
If it’s anything like a Generac, it reacts pretty slow. I’ve had to remove Generac’s because they didn’t meet life safety standards. Generac swore up and down they did, but the fire marshal didn’t agree. 30 seconds is too long for it to start and transfer to meet fire code.
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Years back a I got called out on a service calll to track down a strange buzzing sound, it turned out this customer had a bunch of these Generac load shed modules buzzing all the time.
Generator was not that old, but all those contactors coils were rattling, turns out the load shed module is a 24VAC contactor that is held on all the time, unless your load management module shuts the contactor off.
Talk about a vampire load, there were about 8 of these things just holding on 24/7/365.
I'd hope by now they have at least a latching contactor / relay or even solid state relays or even a NC contactor that op[ens with 24V.
 
B

Birken Vogt

Senior Member
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
Now they have an energize-to-open contactor but over the last few years their little control board has been going haywire, melting the enclosure, and improperly applying voltage and opening the contactor anyway. It never ends.

The 100 amp version still is held on by voltage all the time.
 
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