Hi,
I have a home PV install that I was thinking of picking up the emon Pi to monitor my usage in real time. Now, separately, my 3 phase generator has been acting up. It has blown 5 surge protectors in my house during a generator test last week. The company I bought the generator from took it in and said it's fine. I would like to hook up a sensor and let the generator run overnight, then look at the output.
Is emon what I should be looking at? I wanted to use the sensor on my home PV after I troubleshoot the generator. Maybe i should be looking at some other kind of electrical analyzer?
Thanks
Re: Can I use emon Pi to monitor/analyze 3 phase generator output?
I think you have two conflicting needs there.
The emonPi on its own will monitor one voltage and two currents. If you have a 3-phase installation, that's not enough, so you'll need to use the Pi as an emonBase and add (possibly a few) emonTx's hard-wired with a serial connection or reporting by radio to have enough inputs to be meaningful.
Now the emon system is designed for energy monitoring, but though you could possibly write software to do the generator trouble-shooting duty, I wouldn't like to guarantee that it's anywhere near fit for that purpose. If you're heading towards a contractual argument with the generator manufacturer, then you probably need to be looking at hiring some specialised monitoring equipment that's specifically designed to detect and record power supply disturbances (and maybe the expertise that goes with it). Unfortunately, this doesn't come cheap.
Is it possible that you need more substantial surge protectors than the ones you had? You don't say what they were nor where they were located, but again my feeling is that if your generator put big spikes on your supply, then you need a big 3-phase surge limiter at the generator infeed.
Here is as good a place as any to start. I fitted one of the ABB range into a friend's system after he'd had several items blown up, allegedly by spikes from his neighbour's milking machine (he's on a farm) and as far as I know, he's had no trouble since.