How to increase stress in the country

Background.

To the manufacturer of the power load optimizer OEL-820that we wrote about earlier here and here, I contacted an electrician serving the cottage village, and ordered a whole box of OEL-820. After some time, managers called back the buyer to find out how he operates the devices. And it was curious why he needed so many optimizers?

It turned out this. In the holiday village there is an old high-voltage transformer KTP, whose power is limited. Therefore, in the spring, autumn and winter, when energy-intensive electric heating appliances and water heaters were turned on in the houses, the total power consumption increased, and the voltage in the village electric network dropped. When turning on electric kettles and submersible borehole pumps with a high starting current, the voltage sagged still, albeit briefly.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that the wiring in the houses is old (over 20 years), with an insufficient cross-section of conductors and not designed for the high power of modern household appliances. Therefore, power outlets the more it fell, the greater the power of electrical appliances included in the network.

It got to the point that energy-saving lamps did not light. Voltage stabilizers, which overloaded the network even more, knocked out the input circuit breaker or themselves failed, did not help either. Due to overloaded wiring in one house, a fire occurred.

It’s not our money to replace the substation, then we invited an electrician to check where the voltage disappears in the houses. He measured the voltage of the sockets when turning on powerful electrical appliances, and the voltage at the entrance to the house. The difference was tangible.

For the experiment, in the same house, we tried to reduce the power consumed by electrical appliances using a non-priority load disconnect relay. The result was encouraging, but installing such a relay turned out to be a long and expensive business, and operation is not too convenient. Climbing the Internet, we found the OEL-820 wireless non-priority load disconnect relay, and experimented with it.

The result pleased. They killed several birds with one stone. Reduced power consumption and wiring load. The circuit breaker stopped tripping. The voltage in the mains has increased. No need to redo the leash - the device plugs into sockets in different rooms and does not require adjustment during operation.

The excellent result was obtained by the use of OEL-820 in a group of country houses powered from one overhead line. When the power consumed by houses sharply decreased, the load on the transformer of the cottage village and the voltage drop in the wires decreased. As a result, the voltage in the houses increased to an acceptable value without the use of stabilizers.

An example from life.

In a house with a power supply of 3.5 kW, it is necessary to use two electric convectors of 1 kW each, a storage water heater of 1 kW and a kettle of 1 kW.

Total, the total power of electrical appliances is 4 kW.

Consider how the heating appliances will work.

The priority heater in the left room on the second floor is connected to the wall outlet through block A of the OEL-820 load optimizer, and the non-priority heater in the right room is connected through block B.

When the priority convector A is turned on in heating mode, the non-priority convector B is turned off. As soon as the temperature in the left room reaches the set value, convector A will turn off the heating. The duty cycle of non-priority appliance B.

When the temperature in the right room reaches the set value, convector B will turn off. For some time, depending on the quality of the thermal insulation of the rooms, both convectors can be turned off. At this time, the temperature in the left room slowly decreases.

When the temperature drops below the set value, priority convector A will turn on and begin a new duty cycle.

Since in a pair of convectors on the second floor one and only one convector can be switched on, their total power consumed from the network, in our case, will never exceed 1 kW. Consequently, the consumption and load on the power grid will be reduced by half!

Let's move on to the electrical appliances of the first floor.

We connect the priority electric kettle to the network through block A of the load optimizer OEL-820, and the non-priority storage water heater through block B. While the kettle is not in use, the water heater operates in accordance with its duty cycle determined by the temperature set on the thermostat. But, as soon as the kettle is turned on, the water heater will automatically shut off remotely.

When, after boiling water, the kettle turns off, the water heater will continue to work.

Since in the “kettle - water heater” pair one and only one electrical appliance can be switched on, their total power consumed from the network, in our case, will never exceed 1 kW. Therefore, the consumption and load on the power grid will be reduced by half!

Yuri Shurchkov