Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/powe....htm?PID=77038

Any other suggestions?

On 05/05/2017 09:57 AM, Taxed and Spent wrote:
Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load
throughout the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see
how much of the 1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second
tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/powe....htm?PID=77038


Any other suggestions?


Since the contractor is too cheap to buy current logging equipment I
guess someone could take a meter reading every hour or so.

I have used Dranetz equipment in the past for this.

See: http://www.dranetz.com/

These are less $$ than Fluke and can be rented for a short period rather than purchased.

Dan

On Fri, 5 May 2017 06:57:01 -0700, Taxed and Spent
wrote:

Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/powe....htm?PID=77038

Any other suggestions?

You can use a clamp on the phases when you think you are close to peak
load or you can just look at the accumulated usage from the PoCo meter
but a logger is the only way to be sure you see peak loads.

On Friday, May 5, 2017 at 8:57:05 AM UTC-5, Taxed and Spent wrote:
Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/powe....htm?PID=77038

Any other suggestions?

The power company here in Alabamastan has done it for me in the past. I contacted their engineering department and they have the necessary equipment. I don't recall the cost if any for the service. ヽ(ヅ)ノ

[8~{} Uncle Power Monster

On 05/05/2017 8:57 AM, Taxed and Spent wrote:
Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.
....

Any other suggestions?

Ask the utility if they'll do it for him.

As another said, rent the gear for a month; there are all kinds of
outfits that do such.

On the cheap, use a single phase clampon meter with a usb port and a
laptop...

--

On Friday, May 5, 2017 at 11:40:01 AM UTC-4, dpb wrote:
On 05/05/2017 8:57 AM, Taxed and Spent wrote:
Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.
...

Any other suggestions?

Ask the utility if they'll do it for him.

As another said, rent the gear for a month; there are all kinds of
outfits that do such.

On the cheap, use a single phase clampon meter with a usb port and a
laptop...

--

and another way is to look at the equipment that the tenant has and add up the current of the stuff you figure might be on at the same time

m

On 5/5/2017 9:57 AM, Taxed and Spent wrote:
Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/powe....htm?PID=77038


Any other suggestions?


Power company for one. If they are running equipment like an air
compressor, the suppliers will do it for you. There are outfits that do
energy audits that will do it and also find ways to reduce load.

How big an outfit is this? 1000 A at 460V will run a lot of equipment.
We have 600A and run 14 molding machines, 1 150hp compressor, 1 75hp
compressor, 2 boilers, assorted pumps, cooling towers, lighting and more.

I've had 1 week monitoring and never paid anyone anything.

On 5/5/2017 6:57 AM, Taxed and Spent wrote:
Contractor wants to monitor commercial tenant's current load throughout
the day for a month or two to see max load, and thus see how much of the
1000 amp panel capacity is left for a future second tenant.

I see several Fluke meters that costs a fortune, such as:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/powe....htm?PID=77038


Any other suggestions?

I have zero experience with three phase...
What info can you get out of the utility meter?
Old meters that have a wheel can be read using
something like
https://www.bluelineinnovations.com/
I have the older model on my two-phase meter.

Mine's not three phase. It's digital, but it has an IR LED that
blinks according to the power consumption.
I programmed an old Palm Pilot to read the IR
and graph/log consumption. Duct taped it to the
meter along with a much bigger battery to get
enough run time.

If the meter has the blinky IR LED and you can get
your hands on an old palm pilot or Handspring Visor, email me.

Written in basic, and trivial.
Problem is bootstrapping the palm to get it all loaded.
I'm not sure that the basic interpreter is still easily
available on the web.
I had to load it on a new palm and IR it over the the old palm.
I'm not 100% sure that I can reconstruct the details of that process.

FWIW, when considering total loading, don't underestimate
the peak transient loads that happen when big motors start.
Those are hard to capture with simple equipment.