UPS and Phase Switching

G'day All,
About 50% of blackouts in my area are limited to one phase. So I've distributed the phases so we have minimal lighting/power on any phase.

I would like to implement phase switching to follow the live phases and a small generator if they all go. Has anyone done or thought about this?

I could do it manually (cheaply) with a couple of cam switches, but hey let's blow the budget ;-)

An UPS for the cBus power supply should keep the smarts alive. Three 12V transformers connected to relays would tell me which phases are alive. Then a few PLC's to do the phase switching or start the generator and cBus can implement restricted lighting/power.

OK, I'm no expert and I've probably got most of it wrong that's why I'm posting the idea here. Please enlighten me

Thanks in anticipation,
build

 

As far as I know NHP distribute an intelligent load balancing system which I believe can also drop phases which are not active.

 

Nhp

G'day Tobex,
Thank you for your reply.
I have already been in touch with NHP, they were very helpful but said they could not supply a ready made answer and sent me info on their PLC's. However I will ask them about their "Load Balancing System".

cheers,
build

 

A picture

G'day All,
To help with my description I have uploaded a PDF here.

cheers,
build

 

Phase Failure Relay

G'day again,
I've found a reference to a "Phase Failure Relay" which sounds like a goer but can't see anything more descriptive on it, any help appreciated.

cheers,
build

 

Just remember that both the power supply side and dimmer side of the C-Bus DIN Leading Edge dimmers needs to always be on the same phase.

 

I was wondering about that and now I have the answer.

 

If you want a generator in the circuit then I presume that has to have its own power failure detection switch and would be installed prior to the phase detector.

I would favour a 3-phase UPS in some cases and have seen massive two door models going for $900 used on eBay.

 

Plus shipping...

Presumably plus $1000 express air shipping?

 

I always thought it more fun to borrow a ute ...... the last one was in Perth and me ... on the other side.

 

G'day All,
I've found a small problem.

With two phases down the cBus units on those phases seem to stuff-up the live phase. If I unplug the units on the dead phases the live phase works.

How can I get around this problem?

tia
build

 

could it be that you have lost too may power supply units to keep the CBUS network alive ??

 

Sort of ...

This is how the cBus is wired.
Only the Blue Phase has an UPS to the cBus.
INPUTs are in a star config, no problems there.

OUTPUTs in a loop
CNI (Blue live) > 8ch Dim (Blue live) > 8ch Dim (White dead) >8ch Dim (Red dead) > 12ch VFR (Blue live) > 12ch VFR (White dead) > 12ch VFR (Red dead).

If I just jump the 2 dead dimmers it works, so it seems that the cBus can't loop past a dead output?

Is that correct?

 

but do the units that are on the blue phase have power supplies ? If so are 2 power supplies enought to power the entire cbus network.

 

Yes and (pretty sure) Yes. I'll check. I have another older Power Supply which I might add.

If I rearrange the network with Blue Phase units at the front the problem is solved also. But I'll investigate further.

Depending on the cBus topology the units on the other phases are visible to the cBus network but they don't appear to work (switch). This is curious so I'll look further into it.

I may look at putting the VFR's (power supply not loads) on the small UPS protected Blue Phase as the switched loads can be a different phase. That leaves the 2 dimmers which could possibly be arranged at the end of the cBus loop.