Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1996-03-15
1997-04-01
Voeltz, Emanuel T.
Boots, shoes, and leggings
364493, 364514, 34082521, H04B 358
Patent
active
056173296
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to determining the phase of public-type electric power supplies, ie power supplies provided by utility companies and the like to the general public, both commercial/industrial and private (residential); such power supplies are commonly referred to as the "mains" (usually for the low voltage portions of the system) or "grid" (usually for the high voltage portions of the system).
For various reasons mains or grid systems are normally 3-phase AC systems, operating at 50 or 60 Hz. The 3 phases are conventionally taken as R, Y, and B (red, yellow, and blue), and the common (star point) as N (neutral).
It is desirable for the loading of the 3 phases to be broadly balanced. Some types of consuming devices, eg large electric motors, large-scale heating systems, and the like, are similarly 3-phase. However, many consuming devices are single-phase. Commercial and industrial users are generally supplied with a 3-phase supply, and to the extent that their individual consuming devices are single-phase, they can be encouraged in various ways to design and operate their systems so that the load they impose is broadly balanced. Residential and other small users, however, are normally supplied only with a single phase. The supply company therefore has to try to balance the load resulting from such consumers, by an appropriate pattern of connection of the different small users to the 3 phases of the supply.
This balancing can be achieved in various ways. The number of single-phase users will normally be reasonably large, and a random pattern of connection to the 3 phases will therefore generally result automatically in a rough balancing. If this is deemed inadequate, then a suitable pattern of connections to the 3 phases can be deliberately adopted, eg by connecting houses (or groups or blocks of houses) to the 3 phases in a regular pattern.
In general however, the balancing achieved by these methods will only be approximate. Even if the connections are deliberately made in a pattern intended to achieve balance, there will be an imbalance due to differing loads between users of different sizes, and differing patterns of usage between different users. Further, as new users require connection and old users require disconnection, there will be changes in the system which will shift the balance.
To achieve a good balance, two things are necessary: knowledge of the actual loadings of the 3 phases, and the ability to adjust these loadings. It is obviously useless to consider adjusting the phase loadings without knowledge of their actual loadings. But if that knowledge is available, then suitable actions can be taken to improve the balance between the 3 phases. If it is not practical to go out immediately and change the phase supplied to particular consumers, then such changes can be made in the course of other work as that work is required; also, when fresh consumers are being connected, they can be connected to the appropriate phases to improve the general balance.
Knowledge of the loadings of the 3 phases can be gained by monitoring the mains supplies, eg at transformer and switching stations. However, there are certain difficulties in achieving this; further, this gives no information about which consumers are connected to which phases or what loads the different consumers place on their phases. It is therefore desirable for the phases and loads of the individual consumers to be available.
Hitherto this information has not generally been available, or if it has been available, it has not been in a form which can readily be utilized. Although the loads drawn by the various consumers are of course monitored and known, for billing purposes, the phases to which individual consumers are connected are often not known, and even if they are known, it has not been feasible to link this information with the detailed geographical structure of the supply network.
Systems for the remote reading of meters over the supply network are now, however, becoming practicable. Such systems use high frequency signalling
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patent: 3973087 (1976-08-01), Fong
patent: 4382248 (1983-05-01), Pai
patent: 4626622 (1986-12-01), Bouvrette
patent: 5055769 (1991-10-01), Gentile
patent: 5510700 (1996-04-01), Pomatto
Allison Robert J.
Farnsworth Stephen D.
Fisher Edward J. D.
Scholefield David R.
Miller Craig Steven
Remote Metering Systems Ltd.
Voeltz Emanuel T.
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