On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:17:56 -0700, wrote:

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:58:22 -0500, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:10:08 -0700, wrote:

A friend of mine here on Whidbey Island has a welding business. It's
pretty new, only a few years now. Anyway, he called me yesterday with
an electrical problem. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has had complaints
from neighbors about voltage spikes or drops, my friend wasn't clear
on this, but they showed him a graph which I have yet to see. The
solution PSE is proposing is a new xmfr at the pole. PSE told my
friend the problem is because of the hard starting welder. The welder
is an older xmfr type machine with lots of copper. At full load it is
rated at 11 kw, which is about 46 amps. But I don't know what the
current spkies to when he first steps on the pedal. The machine is now
wired for single phase but can be wired for three phase. What he wants
to know is if he ran the welder from a Rotary Phase Converter would
the current spikes and voltage drops be less. I don't know. I also
don't know if there is a way besides my friend paying thousands for
PSE to install a new xmfr on the pole for this situation to be
ameliorated. He can't afford at this time for a new welder with a
softer start setting. Besides, the hard fast start means his employee
can make more welds. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Eric
==============
How is this his problem? Why should he pay to fix a problem
that belongs to the electric company?
I don't know. It may be he needs to talk to the state about it. But it
looks now like it is his problem. Do you have a solution?
Eric

You might look into power factor correction caps for the welder.
There's plenty of misinformation about this online without my adding
to it, but my understanding is that a welder with PF correction will
draw more current at idle, but less under load. Not sure what it'll
do, if anything, about surges.

Re who's responsible, in my area there are certain single phase loads
that the power company can force you to remove if they cause problems.
Single phase motors larger than 5HP, for example.

--
Ned Simmons