Oil Filled Xfrmr

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Alwayslearningelec

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Anyone see oil filled xfrmrs anymore in commerical work? If you do see them on what type of jobs/installtion are they usually on?
 
Alwayslearningelec said:
Where/Why are oil filled used?
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When the cost of fireproofing, combustion byproduct management, and spill containment are not prohibitive versus simple air cooling. Think of outdoor installations or harsh environments as the most typical locations.
 
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Alwayslearningelec said:
So when you see the vents that's air cooled and NOT oil filled.

Where/Why are oil filled used?
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Inside of an electric closet or service room you'll see air cooled for the reasons that Jim mentioned. Outside or out in a vault under the sidewalk you might see oil filled.
 
Air cooled. On 13,200 volt services believe windings are vacuum sealed and have at least 3 cooling fans at bottom of transformer that automatically start when transformer reaches a set temperature. We used to check our fans every month during the summer by placing them on hand and listen for each fan and make sure temperature on digital readout went down a few degrees. Back in the 1970's we had halve a dozen oil filled 4,160 & 13,200 volt transformers. We had the oil tested every year and at least two of them had to be powered down to run the oil filter press for a few hours. Good old lazy GE service department contaminated one transformer when they used hundred foot of PCB filled hose to filter out a 13.2 GE transformer.
 
We use liquid cooled transformers all the time in larger sizes. They are often higher efficiency and in some cases smaller footprint than an air cooled VFI transformer.

For liquid cooled, we only specify FR3 (or similar) which is less flammable per the NEC.
 
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