Hi Bill
On (25 Dec 96) BILL BAUER wrote to Roy J. Tellason...
BB> ............................................................... the
 BB> frequency of the load should have something to do with it. Here is
 BB> my reasoning.
I hope I don't seem patronising or patting you on the head Bill! but to help
you thru this minefield of messy complications, I say- forget frequency, it
will be 60 cycles near as dammit at ALL times. There is nix in Utility 
ystems
and nix in an engine driven induction generator, that will for any practical
situation, determine a different frequency from 60 in US.
 BB> 110 volt iron which would draw say 1200 watts and the meter is going
 BB> to measure the juice that the 110 volt iron uses just as it would
 BB> if you had 220 service and was running a 220 volt arc welder. So
 BB> it just seems logical to me that something *MUST* be stable in order
 BB> for it to work properly and since both voltage and current are always
 BB> variable units
It is best to regard voltage as steady within a narrow range, and current as
varying considerably. As said above treat frequency as rock- steady.
The other important variable is *phase* and this is highly variable and like
Religion, is best left for discussion by Holy Persons! It makes music to the
Converted but is Black Magic and Evil to normal healthy persons.
 BB> What would happen if you had power fed in from the grid from two
 BB> separate locations and from two different transformers with each
 BB> "source" naturally being metered and you hooked the two sources
 BB> together and in that manner drew power from both sources
 BB> simultaneously? Would that change the rate or direction of meter
 BB> rotation?
No. Your meter rotation is defined by conditions at your address. The energy
you consume comes from hundreds of generators- hydro, coal, oil, nuclear-  in
US and Canada and maybe from south of US too. The individual power Pools run
to agreements and yes the meters between them will sometimes reverse due to
these agreements but your meter will not respond to those changes.
                                                                          
Assuming that you are welding and the welder is plugged
 BB> into the "right hand" side of the resulting circuit and nothing
 BB> was plugged into the "left hand" side would the "left hand" meter
 BB> be measuring some of the power or would the welder draw from both
 BB> meters simultaneously or what the dickens would most likely be
 BB> the result. Seems unlikely that they would both draw current at
 BB> the same rate if there were say 30 to 50 feet or more of separation
 BB> between the meters due to the greater resistance of one of the runs.
I don't think I comprehend the cicuit. If two sources thru separate meters 
re
supplying a single load, then the splitting of the total load is not real
simple, but depends upon the complex impedances of the two paths, and
the source voltages up front at those two metered sources.
The *complex* impedance [that's a nice *emotional* word] is mainly reactive
not resistive especially for utilities using overhead mains. The main part of
the impedance is usually the inductive reactance, and this is expressed in
series ohms. Those ohms may be from 2 to 10 times as large as the resistive
ohms. And was a handicap to Geo Westinghouse and others who killed off DC
power distribution in our cities, and sold *AC* in place of it- "the killing
voltage" as described by some obnoxious oponents.
There is no practical need, to account for these parameters in a
HOMEPOWER scene. But these are pressing matters for Utilities and account for
a great deal of the investment that they make, and which in turn accounts for
much of the energy bills you pay to them.
Those of you who are used to my wordy messages will not be surpised to know I
was a Utility employee 1946> 1987.  Cheers...ALEC
... ........When I contemplate the moon, my head aches [Galileo]
--- PPoint 1.92
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