Vphase VX2
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May as well rip it out they no longer work like they did. The idea was to match the voltage as most domestic equipment uses lower than 230 volt and the power supplies would turn the excess into heat. However today we use switch mode or pulse width modulated power supplies and no longer is the excess voltage turned into heat.
Any item which uses a heating element will take longer to reach temperature so the heat is escaping for longer so in the main the higher the voltage the less energy is used. So to boil a kettle with 2 pints of water will take the same amount of power if done in 5 minutes or 10 minutes if no heat is lost from the kettle, however heat is loss from the kettle so it costs more if it takes 10 minutes to boil.
The only real saving was with wire wound ballast fluorescent fittings, however using HF ballast also means tubes last longer, it does not have stroboscopic effect, and it give out more light as well as saving power so fitting HF ballast is far better than using a auto transformer to reduce the voltage so today the Vphase is just a bit of junk.
There is some info here but personally I would just rip it out unless you have loads of 220 volt fluorescent fittings with wire wound ballast fitted.
Also my fridge/freezer and freezer are both inverter controlled as is my washing machine so no saving there. As if not inverter controlled the biggest cause of failure is the overload going due to volt drop so I would not want a auto transformer feeding them. Over 8 amp the auto transformer starts to over heat and once the limit is reached it switches off it also switches off if the current exceeds 20A so in real terms it only works on the lights. With LED lighting now really not required. My LED lamp at front of house uses 5W with any voltage between 85 and 265 so a drop of 27 volts will do nothing.
Any item which uses a heating element will take longer to reach temperature so the heat is escaping for longer so in the main the higher the voltage the less energy is used. So to boil a kettle with 2 pints of water will take the same amount of power if done in 5 minutes or 10 minutes if no heat is lost from the kettle, however heat is loss from the kettle so it costs more if it takes 10 minutes to boil.
The only real saving was with wire wound ballast fluorescent fittings, however using HF ballast also means tubes last longer, it does not have stroboscopic effect, and it give out more light as well as saving power so fitting HF ballast is far better than using a auto transformer to reduce the voltage so today the Vphase is just a bit of junk.
There is some info here but personally I would just rip it out unless you have loads of 220 volt fluorescent fittings with wire wound ballast fitted.
Also my fridge/freezer and freezer are both inverter controlled as is my washing machine so no saving there. As if not inverter controlled the biggest cause of failure is the overload going due to volt drop so I would not want a auto transformer feeding them. Over 8 amp the auto transformer starts to over heat and once the limit is reached it switches off it also switches off if the current exceeds 20A so in real terms it only works on the lights. With LED lighting now really not required. My LED lamp at front of house uses 5W with any voltage between 85 and 265 so a drop of 27 volts will do nothing.
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More on the concept here: http://www.beama.org.uk/resourceLibrary/beama-voltage-systems-guide.html
Section 4 covers various types of loads and indicates if they are suitable for voltage optimisation or not.
Of those that are, few are used in a domestic property so any savings will be next to nothing.
Section 4 covers various types of loads and indicates if they are suitable for voltage optimisation or not.
Of those that are, few are used in a domestic property so any savings will be next to nothing.
What a poorly-written report!
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Indeed - and I can't help but wonder who on earth the 'target readership' was!
Kind Regards, John
If you were that interested, there is a test report on the OFGEM web site. It seems there may have been eariel plans for a large roll out of these devices.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/defa...-saving-trial-report-for-the-vphase-vx1_0.pdf
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/defa...-saving-trial-report-for-the-vphase-vx1_0.pdf
When you say "circuit diagram" is it the diagram of the internals that you are looking for, or just the how-to-connect-it-up guide?
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It would be interesting to see how they have done it. Clearly there is a toroidal auto transformer which drops the voltage so output is 27 volts lower. Also it has to measure the incoming voltage and switch when that drops below a set voltage, it also switches if the current draw exceeds 20 amp, and also switches if the auto transformer gets too hot. As to if a simple relay is used or it uses solid state switching don't know.
I tried to build a charger using a similar idea the caravan site had a huge volt drop which would cause mains hum on my transmitter so wanted to switch between the 240 volt and 220 volt windings in the power supply however I found I had relay chatter and in the end went to using a switch mode power supply which although it would not work as stand alone would work with a battery to absorb the quick change as the PTT button was pressed.
I would guess they would have to use solid state switching but that is only a guess. I know where they are made it is an ex nuclear site and from memory the security is quite tight still, so not sure I could actually get to the door to ask.
I found the trail interesting in the way they wanted to class boiling of a kettle as electric heating and asked for a correction to be applied where an electric immersion heater, cooker or kettle was used. The only home I can think of without electric heating would be a caravan.
Although they selected a cross section of houses what they did not do was list what was in the house. Any switch mode device will likely not be affected be the voltage kept within the range. These devices are increasing in my own house just going back 5 years and I have seen the freezer, fridge/freezer, and washing machine all changed to inverter drives. Also over half the lighting has changed to LED. So if the survey was done 5 years ago and repeated today then there would be a huge drop in power saved. And yes the report is 5 years old.
I tried to build a charger using a similar idea the caravan site had a huge volt drop which would cause mains hum on my transmitter so wanted to switch between the 240 volt and 220 volt windings in the power supply however I found I had relay chatter and in the end went to using a switch mode power supply which although it would not work as stand alone would work with a battery to absorb the quick change as the PTT button was pressed.
I would guess they would have to use solid state switching but that is only a guess. I know where they are made it is an ex nuclear site and from memory the security is quite tight still, so not sure I could actually get to the door to ask.
I found the trail interesting in the way they wanted to class boiling of a kettle as electric heating and asked for a correction to be applied where an electric immersion heater, cooker or kettle was used. The only home I can think of without electric heating would be a caravan.
Although they selected a cross section of houses what they did not do was list what was in the house. Any switch mode device will likely not be affected be the voltage kept within the range. These devices are increasing in my own house just going back 5 years and I have seen the freezer, fridge/freezer, and washing machine all changed to inverter drives. Also over half the lighting has changed to LED. So if the survey was done 5 years ago and repeated today then there would be a huge drop in power saved. And yes the report is 5 years old.
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You need one of these auto-stac automatic variacs, I've got one of the little 500VA versions and the servo motor winds the variac up and down to keep the output constant, there is a pot inside so you can adjust the output.
Can't help with a diagram, the 2 dead ones I've seen were all blowing fuses and had dead shorts on all the IGBTs. I've not seen a working one before.
There are a couple of phase patents that you can see online. Sorry I don't seem to be able to paste useful links as the site has frames or something. I just searched the EPO site for "vphase".
Idea might have worked 20 years ago, but much of the saving would have come from making lights dimmer. Actually I'm surprised that they will still seriously trying to deploy this as recently as they were.
I can't imagine that circuit diagrams are publicly available. Why would they be?
Idea might have worked 20 years ago, but much of the saving would have come from making lights dimmer. Actually I'm surprised that they will still seriously trying to deploy this as recently as they were.
I can't imagine that circuit diagrams are publicly available. Why would they be?
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Odd but that is similar to what a did. 500W variable transformer input 240 volt output 0 ~ 250 volt with a voltmeter and manual control.
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