Obtaining clean power

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txsparky

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I know nothing about power quality or conditioning other than what I have read or have seen discussed in this and other forums. Here's my dilemma...
A customer of ours performs R&D for the oil industry. We provide power for these Mad Scientists and their experiments. They are gettting a(n) chomatograph ( I had to look it up ;)

Donnie
 
Re: Obtaining clean power

The phase "clean power" is too generic to mean much. They might be inferring an isolated ground receptacle. Or a regular circuit with a surge suppressor (TVSS). Or a regular receptacle with an off-line UPS. Or a regular receptacle with an online UPS. Or many, many other possibilities.
What is the function? If the power goes out, will that ruin lots of work time? Is there a possibility that the device will have contaminated data if there are power quality problems with the 20A circuit.
Sorry for all the questions, but I'm not sure I can help.
 
Re: Obtaining clean power

TXSPARKY, the most common use of an isolation transformer is to change voltage and establish a new power ground reference close to the point of use. This greatly reduces the problem of common mode noised induced through "ground loops" upstream of the established reference ground point.

For power conditioning purposes, isolation transformers should be equiped with electrostatic shields between the primary and secondary windings. This further isolates the input to output capacitive coupling.

However no isolation transformer alone can gaurentee a clean output if you have garbage input. One option. is to use a Ferroresonant Isolation Regulator Transformer with built in power conditioners and TVSS. This may be what you were quoted.

If you must have absolutly clean power then a motor generator is the cleanest source you can get. This method is exactly what it sounds like. Either a DC or AC motor turning a generator. It completly isolates you from the inout power while deliverling clean output. Some have flywheel effects or DC motors with batteries to provide UPS capabilities. On the same lines you can use a high end double conversion electronic UPS.

It comes down to how important is the power and how much are you willing to spend for it. You really need to determine what the requirements are first before you jump in.

[ July 31, 2003, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: dereckbc ]
 
Re: Obtaining clean power

I second these replies. It may be that the client is not sure what they mean by clean power, so you might ask them to be more specific since it can mean different things.

For instance, electrical "noise" can come through the conductors, but it can also come through space as a magnetic field from another conductor not related to the circuits you are protecting. They need to tell you what their devices are sensitive to. "Clean power" is too general.

Karl
 
Re: Obtaining clean power

Connect a dual trace oscilloscope with data storage to look at the voltage and current waveform. The data can be uploaded to a PC for analysis with a software package.
 
Re: Obtaining clean power

Thanks for the input. I've asked the owner to query the manufacturer on what exactly they mean by "Clean Power". I haven't heard back from them yet.
Donnie
 
Re: Obtaining clean power

what about a constant voltage transformer.
reguardless in input, clean voltage output. even light flicker protection.
 
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