Development of an Analog Electronic Wattmeter

Mahfoozur Rehman and M. R. Saad

School of Electrical and Electronics Engg. University Science Malaysia Penang, Malaysia mahfoozur@eng.usm.my
AbstractThe paper deals with the development of an analog Electronic wattmeter which is simple in design and can measure power, from very low values to very high values, with simple modifications, at different frequencies and with good order of accuracy. It can also be used in the measurement of power of distorted signals and can be interfaced with out any loading error. Basically, it measures I cos with good order of accuracy and effect of variation of voltage is taken care off by introducing a voltage sensitive resistance. By introducing electronic circuits at different stages, phase angle errors due to imperfections can be compensated. Output voltage, at the final stage, will be proportional to average power of the system.

Shamsuddin Ahmad and M.S. Ansari

Department of Electrical Engineering ZHCET, AMU Aligarh, India shams_alig@hotmail.com

I. INTRODUCTION Wattmeter is one of the most important instruments of any laboratory, industry, power distribution system etc. Mostly, Dynamometer type watt meters are used in the measurement of power. However, this meter has a number of limitations, when used for accurate measurement of power, due to current based deflecting system. The finite impedances of pressure and current coils limit the accuracy of measurement [1]. However some electronic circuits have been suggested to improve their performance at low power factors [2]. Wattmeters based upon analog electronic devices, like Hall Effect sensors and Electronic Multipliers have specific applications and are not used as general purpose instrument. Recently, digital watt meters have become popular but have number of limitations due to cost and method of getting final results [3]. In this paper we have presented the details of an analog wattmeter which can be used in a wide rage of power measurement and can be prepared in any laboratory at a low cost. It is composed of a current to voltage converter, analog switches and voltage comparator. Output of the current to voltage converter is applied to the input of the analog switch and its controlling signal is obtained from the main supply, with the help of a voltage divider. The average value of out put voltage of the analog switch will be proportional to I.cos. The averaging can be done with the help of electronic circuit as well as with the help of permanent magnet moving coil instrument. Hence deflection of the PMMC instrument can be calibrated in terms of power. II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of the proposed electronic wattmeter

help of a current transformer and opamp based current to voltage converter. Current transformer will accurately bring down the current level and a simple opamp based current to voltage converter will convert current to voltage. It will provide isolation between supply and measuring circuit and opamp will manage the required value of the output voltage. Current to voltage converter can also manage the phase error of the current transformer by simply varying the passive components used in the feed back path of the current to voltage converter. When load is connected across supply, a current will flow in the circuit which may be given by following expression,
IL = V ZL

(1)

This current will pass through the primary winding of the current transformer and a current Is will flow in the secondary winding as well as through the current to voltage converter. The output voltage of the current to voltage converter may be given by following expression,
Vo = IL RC NC

(2)

The complete circuit diagram is shown in Fig.1. It is designed to measure power of a load of 1Amp at a voltage of 220 volt. Current to voltage conversion is obtained with the

This voltage is connected to the input terminal-1 of analog switch. Control signal of this control switch is obtained from the supply voltage by using a potential divider and a comparator. The output signal, as shown in the Fig.2, will be

III.

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD AND RESULTS

Figure 2. Different waveforms: (a) waveform of the applied voltage; (b) waveform of the load current; (c) waveform of the output of the comparator; (d) waveform of the output of analog switch

proportional to the cosine of the angle between supply voltage and load current and its average value may be given by the following expression, R V o' = k .I L . C .cos (3) NC or (4) Vo' = k1 I L cos If permanent magnet moving coil instrument is used for averaging and display purposes, a current I m, will flow through the meter. Magnitude of this current can be given by following expression (excluding the resistance of the dotted area), V' V0' k1 I L cos (5) = = k 2 I L cos Im = o =
RT Rm + Rop + Ras Rm + Rop + Ras

Experiments were conducted to show the successful working of the proto-type model. However it was tested in the Laboratory in the power range of 1kW and lagging power factor. Applied voltage was varied from 180 to 230V at 50Hz. Circuit was arranged as shown in Fig.1. Resistance of analog switch under ON condition and resistance of FET by varying the gate voltage of the FET were measured to analyze the effect of approximations made in (9). Actual power was measured with the help of sub-standard wattmeter. Power factor was also varied to assess the working at different power factors.. Results obtained are given in Table-1. Only one table is given to verify the working of the wattmeter. Relationship between power and deflection is appreciably linear. For every reading, proportionality constant K is determined which comes out to be nearly constant.
TABLE I. S.No 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WITH VOLTAGE VARYING FROM 180-230 VOLTS Voltage V(Volts) 180 190 200 210 220 230 Current I(Amp) 0.68 0.71 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.84 Power (Watts) 102 123 143 163 184 224 Deflection PMMC 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.5 K 40.800 40.666 40.857 40.750 40.888 40.727

Where, Rm, Rop, Ras are the resistances of permanent magnet moving coil instrument, output resistance of operational amplifier, on resistance of analog switch respectively. From (5) it is clear that current of the instrument is directly proportional to IL .cos . However, voltage variations will not be taken care off. To make the system sensitive to voltage variation (upto10%) a voltage sensitive resistance made of FET is used. It is given in Fig.1 in the dotted area. The resistance offered by FET may be represented as follows, k (6) R fet = 3 Vs Where, R fet is the resistance offered by the FET when a portion of Vs is applied across its gate. In this case, current through meter, will be modified as follows,
' Im =

Vo' Rm + Rop + Ras + R fet

(7)

IV. CONCLUSION A simple, low cost design of an analog type Electronic Wattmeter is presented. Experimental results conform the theory and design has enough potential to be developed as an accurate wattmeter. PMMC instrument can be replaced by electronic averaging circuit, analog to digital converter and digital display. FET based voltage dependent resistance can easily be replaced by other more accurate designs. However present design can also be extended in the measurement of Iron and dielectric losses with proper phase adjustments if needed. Unlike multiplier type wattmeter, spikes will not increase the power indication because averaging of complete cycle is made. With further development work, circuit can be developed as a general purpose wattmeter. REFERENCES

If, R fet =Rm +Rop +Ras , then Eq.7 may be written as,
' Im =

V o' V o' V '. V = = o S 2R fet 2 ( k 3 V S ) 2k 3

(8)

Substituting the value of Vo in Eq.8, we get,

' I m = ( k 1 . S .I L .cos ) 2k 3 = K . S .I L .cos V V (9) It is clear from (9) that Im is directly proportional to power in the load. Hence reading of the Permanent magnet moving coil instrument can be calibrated in terms of power.

[1]. E.W.Golding and F.C.Widdis, Electrical Measurements and Measuring Instruments, 5th Edition,1963 [2]. M.Rehman, ,M.T.Ahmad, and M.Q. Rafiq , Realization of electronically compensated precision type dynameter wattmeter, Proc. IEEE Conference on Consumer and Industrial Electronics and Applications, Singapore, pp 1-3, April, 1984 [3]. K.A.Hammad,M.Y. Jabouri and Al-Khateeb, Digital active and reactive power measurement using sample/hold circuit International Journal of Electronics, vol. 65, no.2, pp263-267.