If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
I am interested in implementing some temperature sensors in a busbar room in a powerplant to monitor the busbar temperatures. Since this is a high voltage environment putting wired sensors and gathering data is not the easiest thing.
I was wondering if it was feasible to use the 50Hz magnetic field inside the room to power the sensors. How would i get about the task of designing an antenna that would gather the energy from this field efficiently?
I havent worked out the other electronics as yet, but i figured the antenna is the starting point. The whole contraption has to be as small as possible because it has to be mounted on a busbar surface. busbars carry around 6000A at around 15Kv
Registered Member #2901
Joined: Thu Jun 03 2010, 01:25PM
Location:
Posts: 837
An antenna? How much room do you have? :) (Wavelength and all.)
AFAICS you simply need a solenoid with the axis of the solenoid lined up with the magnetic field lines (so assuming the busbar is carrying AC current, it would be flat on the busbar perpendiclar to direction of the current).
The rogowski coil is the same idea, except it goes all the way around.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
There will be a huge magnetic field around the busbars. A solenoidal coil as Pinky suggested should pick up lots of it, and a core of (preferably laminated) iron would help it pick up even more. Maybe try pulling the coil out of a relay, or a quartz clock, etc.
There will also be a large electric field. You could pick some up with a little capacitive antenna, a disc or sphere on the end of a stick or suchlike. When you're some little gizmo standing on the busbar, the busbar looks like ground, and the whole rest of the world looks like it's energized with 15kV AC. So if you can make any kind of capacitive coupling to the rest of the world, a current will flow that you can rectify. The size of the antenna will be limited by safety clearance considerations.
The magnetic field will vary with the load current. Your sensors might not work at light loads. So maybe you want to use the electric field instead, or use both.
Registered Member #2385
Joined: Thu Sept 24 2009, 01:26AM
Location: Waxhaw, North Carolina (Or Charlotte near UNCC)
Posts: 26
You could suggest it to the higher ups and get some R&D going b/c that would be a nifty thing to have. I'm sure the utility would like to invest in a sensor such as that as it can help prevent failures etc. There are plenty of non-profit research groups out there that would jump on something like this. Just contact a transmissions person, depending on what kinda power plant you work at, generations, nuclear etc it could be worth while.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Well, I work for one of these groups, except it's definitely for profit.
Busbar temperatures are usually monitored with a thermal imaging camera. The cameras are expensive, about $10k, but the utility hires someone else to do it. They come in with the camera, go home and write a report.
Registered Member #2648
Joined: Sun Jan 24 2010, 12:45PM
Location: Australia
Posts: 291
Linear seem to have the exact ICs for your purpose.
Linear Tech wrote ...
Energy Harvester Produces Power from Local Environment, Eliminating Batteries in Wireless Sensors
Advances in low power technology are making it easier to create wireless sensor networks in a wide range of applications, from remote sensing to HVAC monitoring, asset tracking and industrial automation. The problem is that even wireless sensors require batteries that must be regularly replaced—a costly and cumbersome maintenance project. A better wireless power solution would be to harvest ambient mechanical, thermal or electromagnetic energy from the sensor’s local environment
Linear seem to have the exact ICs for your purpose.
Linear Tech wrote ...
Energy Harvester Produces Power from Local Environment, Eliminating Batteries in Wireless Sensors
Advances in low power technology are making it easier to create wireless sensor networks in a wide range of applications, from remote sensing to HVAC monitoring, asset tracking and industrial automation. The problem is that even wireless sensors require batteries that must be regularly replaced—a costly and cumbersome maintenance project. A better wireless power solution would be to harvest ambient mechanical, thermal or electromagnetic energy from the sensor’s local environment
wow that was exactly what i was looking for. thanks.
Registered Member #311
Joined: Sun Mar 12 2006, 08:28PM
Location:
Posts: 253
wrote ... Busbar temperatures are usually monitored with a thermal imaging camera. The cameras are expensive, about $10k, but the utility hires someone else to do it. They come in with the camera, go home and write a report.
There isn't going to be much temperature gradient along a big busbar so imaging is probably overkill, except maybe if you need to check heating at multiple connections.
You can get IR thermometers way cheaper than TI cameras - <$100. There are some industrial IR thermometer products designed for fixed monitoring in process control- this may be a better option than contact measurement.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
harvesting energy from 50Hz EM radiation
