new here apologies if this was already answered. Just want to make sure i buy the right equipment.
I’m in Australia. I have 3-phase 230/40 standard mains connection to my board. This supplies two 3-phase distribution boards elsewhere in the house and there is a 3-phase solar feed in. Photos attached
Can someone with more expertise confirm i can monitor this configuration (I’m ok with just monitoring the gross power here, i don’t need any finer grain detail of specific circuits downstream) and which clamps, etc i should purchase?
OK You have a couple of options main one being are you happy to use derived voltage for all 3 phases or do you want really accurate measurements ? If you are in a Main City metro then there should only be minimal voltage difference between phases - if in the country etc could be larger.
You need to purchase a USB power supply to power the IOTAWATT
You need to purchase a minimum 1 Voltage reference - i use the one recommended from Jaycar on all mine and have no issues with it.
Then you would need as a minimum 9 CT clamps - 3 for solar and 3 for each of the sub boards (assuming you want to monitor them individually)
Not sure what the protected power switch is ? Is that for HWS or something similar serviced directly from this board ?
If you wanted to you could also add another 3 CT clamps for the main supply into the board - but you can already derive this from the other clamps with a reasonable degree of accuracy - so not strictly necessary
Yep metro only so simple will be fine. So i need 3 x CT for each line for the simple case, or can i get away with fewer?
I’m not sure what that single breaker is for either, my guess is it’s for the powerpoint in the box itself so can probably ignore. I’ll ask the sparky when he visits next.
Yes if you want to monitor each of the subboards and how much power they are drawing then
CT clamps - 3 x Solar, 3 x Subboard 1, 3 x Subboard 2
1 x VT reference from Jaycar etc
Buy the clamps from Bob - you could maybe get away with 50amp CTs - but as there is not a lot of difference in size - better off with the 100A units
Before you buy - it might be an idea to open up the back of the meter box and just make sure there is enough room in there for 9 clamps
You will also need a nearby power point - i would not recommend putting the IOTAWATT in the meter box as the metal drastically reduces the radio signal - better off mounting a waterproof box on the outside (or underneath) the meter box and feeding the CT clamps up through a small hole with a gland
