Where to rent 3phase power/energy logging equipment?

[mojonba]

To make a long story short, my power company is incorrectly metering my energy/power consumption and my monthly bills are higher than they should be and I would like to do my own metering for 30-45 days to see how bad the problem is and present my findings to the Power Co. Since I know fluke makes decent meaurement equipment, I browsed their catalog and found the fluke 1735. Looks like the the tool I would need and would love to play with one of those. Since I cannot afford to buy one of those to use for a couple of days I was looking for someplace I could rent them. If such a place does not exist any alternative equipment that would perform similarly would be appreciated. Also I am no electrical engineer (ME here) so I am not even sure I am looking for the ideal tool, so any help would be appreciated.

Thx,

J.Villa

 

[itsmoked]

My suggestion...
Find a local engineer who can do this for you. If you want to dispute this with your power company a disinterested third party is a very useful tool. Furthermore if you're "not sure" the end result may be a result you're still not sure of.

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[ScottyUK]

Give us a clue where you are located. Makes a lot of difference when renting!


----------------------------------

Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[wiretwister]

The Utility is required to provide calibration proof when a dispute arises. But if you still want to go thru the expence of renting equiptment, go fetch at this web site.US and Canada only.

http://www.electrorent.com/products...t&wc=Power+Monitors+AC&search=&mfr=&searchkey

Wiretwister

 

[gobblerhuntr]

I would like to hear more about the story of how the utility is metering it incorrectly. I work for a utility and would be the one you would talk to in order to resolve this issue and I think you might be better off letting the utility do the internal metering and provide you with the data you want. In our case it wouldn't cost you a dime and we have a professional committment to be honest and fair no matter how big a customer you are. We have only found one installation that was wrong in my 18 years of working here that was off terribly bad and I metered and figured it up and handed a guy a check for about 130 grand that ran a small asphalt plant, I thought he was gonna cry. Needless to say he now has the utmost confidence in us.

 

[BJC]

I have used the Dent Elete Pro datta logger. I used the flexible current CTs. Very nice set up. Programable, you can pickt the intervals, stop and start times etc. All the data can be transfer to Excel. Once you get in Excel no limit to ow you can massage it.
I am pretty sure they will rent you one. It may take a day or two to load the software and learn to program the thing. I used it gather load profiles over the day in a plant.

http://www.dentinstruments.com/detailsElitePro.htm

 

[stevenal]

Fluke makes fine meters, but the instrument mentioned is not a meter tester traceable to national (NIST in the USA)or international standards. The utility will have the proper equipment.

 

[mojonba]

Thx guys,

Part of the problem is where I'm located, San Juan, PR. The Power Co. here is government owned and run by a bunch of uneducated individuals so if I were to request an investigation I would have to wait 5+ years only for them to send and someone with at most a high school diploma and a multimeter. The way things work around here is not the same you guys are used to. I really just wanted to make my own research so then I can take the required action.

 

[Skogsgurra]

You may - if you are a reasonably small customer - find a used kWh meter on eBay. It won't cost you much. You need to know about power systems to do a safe and correct installation.

If your "private" meter and the utility's meter agree. Then you are fine. If your meter shows what you expect (I would guess less than the utility's), then you have to make sure that it works correctly before taking any action. And that is where you hire someone to do the measurement for you.

Putting a used kWh meter there and see if your feeling is right or not can save you a lot of trouble if it says you are wrong.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again...

 

[dpc]

If you have an old mechanical kWh meter, you can first try turning off everything and verifying that the disk is not turning. Perhaps you've already tried this.

Also, I'm not sure if your situation, but is it possible that someone is stealing power from your side of the meter?

 

[DanDel]

Most large errors in this type of situation result from incorrect CT ratios and/or multipliers used in the calculations. What voltage is the Utility connection? If you are using the same Utility CTs for your monitoring, you may get the same errors.

You didn't explain why you're sure the Utility is metering you incorrectly.

 

[itsmoked]

Or a new meter that you know is correct!

http://www.metersusa.com/Digi-Watt/Digi-Watt.htm

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[jraef]

You never really answered gobblerhuntr's question.

If you are a commercial or industrial user (i.e. 3 phase service or 400A 1 phase service), your perception of power consumption may be vastly different from the size of your bill because of things like demand charges and/or power factor penalties. Did you analyze your bill carefully?

E-mon is a low cost power data logger. Not revenue quality, but it can give you an idea of whether they are in the right ball park.

http://www.emon.com/products_class1000.htm

JRaef.com
"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." Scott Adams
For the best use of Eng-Tips, please click here -> faq731-376

 

[alehman]

jraef has a good point. You can probably buy an Emon for less than it would cost to rent a good calibrated meter.

Try

http://electrorent.com/