How to Use Current and Voltage Sensors on Domestic supplies - Worldwide?

Question

How to Use Current and Voltage Sensors on Domestic supplies - Worldwide?

How to Use Current and Voltage Sensors on Domestic supplies - Worldwide?

I have been working on an Arduino project to measure current and voltage on my domestic electrical supply here in the UK.

1. AardEnergy – Kick Off - a new project

I plan to use a Current Transformer which I can place on the meter cable and a voltage transformer I can plug into a wall socket and these signals will be processed with a meter chip AD7753. The CT will be attached like this:

And the voltage will be measured with a plug in Tx like this:

The question is this, will everyone worldwide be able to use the same approach? You can I hope buy the CT from Amazon say and buy a local plug in transformer. I ask this as the Evaluation board for the ADE7753 chip shows this arrangement for a USA connection:

and it also states:

So it sounds like there as 2 phases in a USA domestic supply, is that so? Can you use a clip on CT in the US?

What about in other countries?

My circuit will look like this for a single phase:

jw0752 · Accepted Answer

Here are some pictures of the electrical mains service in my home so you can see the difficulty in putting a current transformer on the mains feeds. My service is rated at 200 A and is 25 years old. I understand that it isn't uncommon currently to see services that are as high as 300 A in some homes now days. The switch is a transfer switch so I can switch in the backup generator if needed. I am also questioning my analysis given in the previous post as the arrangement of the current transformers would cancel out any reading of the 230 V load. Perhaps someone else has clarity of thought on this. John

gadget.iom · Answer

As promised. Here's one. I'll collect some more in due course.

shabaz · Answer

Hi! That's usually our array of circuit breakers (the white box gets called a 'consumer unit', some examples are here ). Some have clear screens so you can see each circuit's status, but some of the older ones I guess are covered. Also some homes might still have (just a guess) switches and fuses, not circuit breakers inside the box.

gadget.iom · Answer

Our breaker installations (including this one) are typically indoors. There is an increasing trend of installing meters outdoors, though is generally for the convenience of taking meter readings. The isolators are indoors as well.

gadget.iom · Answer

True. But it's all indoors. Many properties over here still have indoor meters, and therefore there is still a lot of doorbell ringing, "we tried to read your meter" cards, and estimated bills. Most new developments have external meter boxes, and the local electricity supplier is very supportive to people progressively moving their meter outdoors.

How to Use Current and Voltage Sensors on Domestic supplies - Worldwide?

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