Overloaded transformer!

[Sensi]

I have a house in a not so populated area, today the power went out at mine and my neighbors house apparently the transformer that runs just our two houses tripped I asked the man who showed up to flip it back on what could've caused it to trip he said that these old transformers can be temperamental and that possibly it could have tripped because of an overload I live in a place where it's 120 degrees almost everyday in the summer, this has never happened before every now and then I might trip a circuit at the house but never a complete outage at the transformer Im running about 8k just in lights on top of my fans and central ac my questions are do you think Im the cause of the tripped transformer or could there be another reason does this happen often and have any of you experienced this yourselves.

 

[Sensi]

By the way in my opinion I'm obviously the reason it tripped just want to know if anyone else has had to deal with this.

 

[Cort]

Buddy of mine lived in a trailer park (hold the jokes) IFRC each unit had 50 amps, but the whole street, 4 or 5 places, only had a 100a breaker off the main.

Buddy only had 1 light, a/c and associated but some time back, some lucky person nicked the main lines feeding all the trailers and it didnt get messed up till the extra draw from his stuff set it off.

So yes, extra draw can stress old equipment and cause failures. Can they point a finger and say it's your fault? Nope. If you have a smart meter I guess they could know it was your fault, still cant do anything about it.

 

[Sensi]

No smart meters out here thank god!

 

[oscar169]

I would have told that dude to put a new one up on the pole b/c if you guys tripped it once then its going to happen all the time as it get older & weaker !!!! then you room is going to take the hit, call the power company & tell them to get their asses out here & put up a new Transformer ASAP !!!! :cool: only if your in a MED State

 

[sedate]

Whoa yea 8kw of lights and the attendant support stuff - fans, pumps, etc., should pull like - at the low end if your room is air cooled - like 45 amps @ 240v.

This is a pretty significant draw on top of running central @ 120 degrees and the rest of a home. You might pull upwards of 70 or 80 amps at peak usuage if it is just you living there.

If you are not in a med state you might want to dial it back a bit.

 

[Sensi]

I had two flowering rooms running on the same schedule, for convenience I guess, but now I flipped their schedules so only one room is on at a time seems to have solved the problem for now.

 

[advanced396]

Question
I'am setting up a new place. It has a 10 KVA transformer & 150 amp main breaker was wondering if I can run 16 1000 watt lights on a flip box so totaling 32 lights on off. With 5 tons ac for each room for a total of 10 tons of air. I will be running digital ballast on 240V

 

[ttystikk]

Question
I'am setting up a new place. It has a 10 KVA transformer & 150 amp main breaker was wondering if I can run 16 1000 watt lights on a flip box so totaling 32 lights on off. With 5 tons ac for each room for a total of 10 tons of air. I will be running digital ballast on 240V

You'll blow that transformer, I think. Half the size you're talking about should be okay.

 

[Texas Kid]

I had to change from a 10kva to a 50kva transformer, I was overclockin the existing setup by along ways

 

[advanced396]

You'll blow that transformer, I think. Half the size you're talking about should be okay.

So how do I go about getting a new transformer up grade , should I tell them that I have a hobby shop in my garage with a welder, air compressors & a 2 ton ac to cool it down along with my house AC? Do you think IREA electric company will give me a up grade, I'am in colorado. I calculated I would be using 110 amps continuously do you think a 25 kVA can handle it?

 

[advanced396]

Also I'am renting the house does the owner have to request the up grade?

 

[Texas Kid]

The home owner has to request it most of the time and they usually use that to update all of the easement agreements and do meter upgrades with the owner

 

[Seamaiden]

Whoa yea 8kw of lights and the attendant support stuff - fans, pumps, etc., should pull like - at the low end if your room is air cooled - like 45 amps @ 240v.

This is a pretty significant draw on top of running central @ 120 degrees and the rest of a home. You might pull upwards of 70 or 80 amps at peak usuage if it is just you living there.

If you are not in a med state you might want to dial it back a bit.

Spoke my mind there. A typical single family home uses about 4KW of power.

 

[Texas Kid]

The power company told me I was runnin 7800kw a month at my one spot...more than the entire town and its 600 residences combined....go figure....lol

 

[advanced396]

Just spoke with my electric company & they say I have a 15kva transformer. They also told me that I could up my 150 main to a 200 amp main breaker. So do you think I can get away with running 16 1000 watt lights with a five ton ac? My digital ballast pull 4.3 amps per 1000 watt bulb?

 

[chazbolin]

In residential neighborhoods 4180 is a popular primary xformer voltage. A 15 kva, 15,000 watt, transformer would be rated for continuous load of 3.6 amps and at the 240 volts coming into your house its 36 amps which doesn't sound like alot but the breaker on the 4180 side would be rated for up to 5 times that. The reason being is the transformer is outdoors and has an internal oil bath to keep it cool. That's why the utility will often times let you upgrade the service and not change the xformer out. They know the fudge factor. That's also why when you put in a new 200 amp service you have to run 3/0 cu wire and you connect to a utility no 6 aluminum.

If you're electrical consumption is unusually high, above 20 kW per day and in repeatable cycles like in 12/12 then you might consider lower wattage systems and adding a few solar panels where you use the power, don't sell it back to the utility, which saves you on monthly utility costs while also creating irregular consumption patterns.

 

[ttystikk]

The power company told me I was runnin 7800kw a month at my one spot...more than the entire town and its 600 residences combined....go figure....lol

Either all your neighbors live in the dark or they got their decimal place wrong, by a factor of 50. 16 households, sure. 600? That's "cop math", kinda like the math they use for "street value".

People love to exaggerate, not knowing how much it makes them look stupid...

 

[Texas Kid]

20kw day is considered high usage...so 300 times that stood out...lol

 

[chazbolin]

Either all your neighbors live in the dark or they got their decimal place wrong, by a factor of 50. 16 households, sure. 600? That's "cop math", kinda like the math they use for "street value".

My thoughts too. 15 kva sounds like service to a 4-5 mobile homes or maybe serving a cul de sac of 2-3 1500 sq ft homes. Just talking to customer service they may have got it wrong but if it is a 15kva xformer and these are running in 120 degree ambients you should scale that operation down to 1/2 what you're currently drawing.