What You Need to Know About Phase Loss in Electrical Equipment
Posted on: 30 December 2016
Do you have HVAC equipment or elevators that use three-phase power? Read on and learn about phase loss and how to prevent its damaging effects on your expensive equipment.
What is Phase Loss?
Phase loss refers to a partial disruption in the supply of power to three-phase electrical equipment. Such a disruption can be caused by several factors, such as a blown fuse or a damaged power line. Such a disruption affects one live wire and leaves the other two live wires in the three-phase supply working.
How Does Phase Loss Affect Equipment?
Once phase loss occurs, your three-phase electrical equipment, such as commercial HVAC equipment, will start drawing an excessive amount of power from the two remaining live wires. When this happens, the motors in the equipment will overheat. The power output of those motors will also reduce since they won't be getting as much power as they need. This can cause a significant loss of performance in that electrical equipment.
The insulation of your equipment is also likely to fail once excessive current from the remaining live wires causes the motors to overheat. Consequently, the motors and other components of the equipment are likely to fail.
Such equipment failures can cause lengthy downtime. Repair costs can also be high because you may be compelled to request for expedited delivery of urgently needed spare parts. Overtime payment to maintenance workers also puts a strain on your finances.
How Can the Damaging Effects of Phase Loss Be Prevented?
Phase loss is almost inevitable because it can arise from factors within your electrical equipment, such as a short circuit. Phase loss can also arise from external factors, such as damage to electrical supply lines during a storm (as already stated). Owners of commercial establishments can therefore only invest in phase-loss protection equipment in order to shield their motors in the event that a phase loss occurs.
Phase loss monitors can be retrofitted on all three-phase equipment in your commercial building. Such monitors instantly cut the power supply to your equipment as soon as they detect that a phase loss has occurred. This prompt action can save the equipment from the adverse effects that would have resulted if it had tried to draw more current from the remaining phases of power in order to compensate for the lost phase. You can then revert to your back-up power supply in order to keep the equipment functioning as normal supply is restored in the lost phase of power.
As you can see, phase loss is a serious problem that you must take seriously. Contact commercial electrical contractors to identify all the equipment that uses three-phase power in your commercial building. He or she can then install phase protection monitors so that you don't suffer the losses caused by phase loss in the power supply.
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