ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Remote Amp Meter

The 'security guards' are monitoring this??? If the location has a CCTV system, install a camera veiwing the control panel. Or is the idea to have them actually walk around and have something to do?

The security guards make their rounds and the generator / cooling tower yard is on the route. This happens all day long along with my routine inspections. In critical areas, they are instructed to observe and in certain cases document the status of certain pieces of equipment. Anything out of the ordinary; readings beyond what is posted as normal for that piece of equipment, temperatures which seem out of range are brought to my attention for investigation. Most critical areas and equipment have a variety of sensors but we have always had visual, regular inspections of all building systems.This involves us training security in the operation of the building systems most critical to safety or most likely to cause major physical or fiscal damage if not detected early.

Ah! Happy days, being woken at 3am by SGs to say "Mr OnCallEngineer, there's a red light showing in building xyz". Then driving 25 miles in the pouring rain into Wales to find a neon that had been happliy glowing for years but only just noticed! Neeearrgghhh!
Here!! I just thought, you don't suppose they saved it up for the foulest night possible just for a laugh do you?

Alan

Yeah been there..done that...but my company pays a minimum four hours OT if I get called back for any reason, and it starts the minute I'm out my door. If they call me back and say "never mind" I still get paid. That being said, I've been doing this long enough that even half asleep, I know which questions to ask, in what order and how often to make a value decision on whether or not to roll on a call. But, it's give and take. If there is ANY doubt whether I should go in.... I go in. That's my call and if I'm wrong, I don't penalize the company for it I'm not that far away and so far my company has always treated me fairly. Our BAS allow me to dial-in from home and evaluate certain systems and areas. Our security personell know they can call me at any time without getting their butts chewed out. In return they work with me on figuring out what's going on and sometimes we both learn something new.I would rather them call me about a fast drip they saw on one of the Reverse Osmossis sytems than extract 500 gallons of water out of a carpet BEFORE I can vacuum, blow and test all the floor circuits.

I think they are using hall effect meters in newer marine charging applications. They have virtually zero insertion loss.

Unfortunately, I need to hook up the existing and not re-invent the wheel. They can see the value in having their generator start when needed, but not in non-parasitic metering.

Still think you should install a camera, especially if it is important, better still Internet accessible - then everyone could watch it on the Internet from home if they like.

I didn't see a manual for the model # you provided. The closest I saw was a reference to a ferroresonant unit with auto-equalize. If this is what you have, there is no one specific voltage or current that you would see. Currents would peak when first going into EQ., and drop to next to nothing when shifting back into Float. Then consider parallax errors and different individuals' readings of analog meter faces.

Does your charger provide the compliment of alarms that many of the new ones include? If so, consider driving two or three indicators on the exterior. Use one fused supply off of the battery string and make sure that at least one is always on. You could use green for all OK, red for under or over voltage, amber for minor alarms, Et.C.

I can't tell you the battery voltage of any of our substation strings. Let any one of them drop below 125 VDC or loose it's AC supply, and we'll know about it within a few seconds. If you use a long-life green cluster LED for normal, and blinking clusters for alarms, you'll get the fastest response possible without wires or transmitters..
Joe

Thanks to all. Meters are in, everything seems to be within specs.