th33ngineer
New Member
Hi everyone, I am new to the site and I have a small design problem.
I work on a ship with a swimming pool that is drained to a retention tank when the ship is cruising at sea. I have been asked to install a heating element into the retention tank. Sounds simple enough. The problem is that the only 440V distribution panel that is close is for the laundry and has a lot of equipment on it already. I am limited by the size of cable that supplies this board from the main switchboard. The load on this board will vary depending on what equipment is running. Running a new larger cable is an expensive and time consuming option.
My thoughts were to install a thyristor power controller that could vary the power supplied to the heating element depending on the total load being taken by the distribution panel. This way when the load increased due to the running of other equipment the thyristor controller could reduce the load on the heater and thus protect the incoming cable and prevent the main breaker tripping on the main switchboard.
Most installations i have come across have the thyristor controller operating on the signal from a temperature sensor only. I have not found an installation that could not only monitor the temperature and control the heater but also monitor the current being drawn by the distribution board.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
I work on a ship with a swimming pool that is drained to a retention tank when the ship is cruising at sea. I have been asked to install a heating element into the retention tank. Sounds simple enough. The problem is that the only 440V distribution panel that is close is for the laundry and has a lot of equipment on it already. I am limited by the size of cable that supplies this board from the main switchboard. The load on this board will vary depending on what equipment is running. Running a new larger cable is an expensive and time consuming option.
My thoughts were to install a thyristor power controller that could vary the power supplied to the heating element depending on the total load being taken by the distribution panel. This way when the load increased due to the running of other equipment the thyristor controller could reduce the load on the heater and thus protect the incoming cable and prevent the main breaker tripping on the main switchboard.
Most installations i have come across have the thyristor controller operating on the signal from a temperature sensor only. I have not found an installation that could not only monitor the temperature and control the heater but also monitor the current being drawn by the distribution board.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.