question

ginosgarage avatar image
ginosgarage asked

Autotransformer to be used to correct voltage drop?

Can the victron autotransformer be used to help correct a voltage drop issue? I am looking for an autotransformer to correct voltage drop over a long power feed to my RV hookup location. Second part to this question is what is the environmental rating for the autotransformer enclosures? NEMA1?

Autotransformer
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4 Answers
haudidier avatar image
haudidier answered ·

Hi,

I don't know the victron autotransformer, but the isolation transformer yes. Because its ratio is a little bit higher than 1, yes it can correct the voltage drop.

But I don't remember the exact ratio.

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ginosgarage avatar image ginosgarage commented ·

So the problem with an isolation transformer is it’s a fixed output.The RV will have a fluctuating load.. so I need something that will compensate based on a fluctuating load.

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haudidier avatar image haudidier ginosgarage commented ·

what is the order of the voltage drop?

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ginosgarage avatar image ginosgarage haudidier commented ·

The amount of voltage drop varies based on the load. I am about 500 feet from my power source. So I would like to have something to help compensate for the voltage drop without having to have really large cables. The source is split phase 120/240v and the RV is a 50 amp plug. As I mentioned the load from the RV will fluctuate as it has 3 air conditioning units that will be cycling at different times not to mention other variable loads like the water heater.

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haudidier avatar image
haudidier answered ·

perhaps +10 or 20V

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haudidier avatar image
haudidier answered ·

I think, if you do not want to increase the size of your cables, you need to find a system to automatically adapt the AV voltage. An autotransformer cannot help you.

To bypass the problem it is possible to use a battery charger (Skylla charger for exemple) powered by the grid, And use an inverter (Pheonix for exemple) connected to the same battery to create your local AC voltage. In this case the local voltage is constant/stable.

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blueovalbruin avatar image
blueovalbruin answered ·

Might be a little late to the party but you could use a Hughes Autoformer for this task. Not a Victron product but it's meant for voltage boosting if you have voltage sag along a long run or you're at a park with low voltage/brownouts.

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