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com WP161
From above, the characteristic sign of the loose neutral
is the voltage in one leg rising, the other falling, and the
total of the two legs roughly equaling the original total.
The Loose Neutral Report in ProVision is triggered by
those conditions, but operates on one second RMS
voltage readings. Thus, an intermittent neutral that
changes quickly may be missed. Also, having loose
neutral information in stripchart form allows for a
continuous view of the trigger conditions during the
recording, which can help in situations where the
neutral isnt yet degraded enough to trigger the report.
GRAPHING LOOSE NEUTRALS WITH PROVISION
The new graph template, available for download here,
is designed for single-phase situations. After importing
into ProVision, the graph template will appear in the
Graphs and Reports section of ProVision, labeled
2CH Loose Neutral (see Figure 2). To draw the graph,
open a ProVision file, and double click the graph
template. An example is shown in Figure 3.
The graph is composed of two plots. In the top plot,
the channel 1 minimum voltage is plotted, along with
the channel 2 maximum voltage. In the bottom plot, the
Contributed by Chris Mullins May 2014
ABSTRACT
A flickering lights customer complaint may be the
first symptom of a dangerous loose/open neutral.
Loose neutrals can cause high voltage equipment
damage, and in extreme cases, excessive current flow
can result in a fire. PMI recorders include a Loose
Neutral Report to help identify possible loose neutral
situations. This report is designed to work with one
second average voltages, making it less sensitive
to intermittent connections. A new graph template
has been created for ProVision, specially designed
to highlight the conditions that may indicate a loose
neutral with single-cycle voltage values.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LOOSE NEUTRAL
Loose neutrals are a common problem in single-
phase residential services. In a single-phase service,
two 120V legs are available. They are referenced to
neutral and are 180 degrees out of phase, giving 240V
between them. Any 120V load on either leg returns
current through the neutral conductor. If the two 120V
legs have exactly equal loads, the neutral return
currents from each leg exactly cancel out, resulting in
no neutral current. This is equivalent to a single 240V
load across both legs, with no connection to the neutral
at all. Otherwise, the neutral current is the difference
in load current between the two legs.
In the example circuit of Figure 1, two loads are shown,
one on each 120V leg. The computer is a 6 amp load;
the light is 4 amps. The difference in current, 2 amps,
would flow through the neutral (ignoring any difference
in waveshape due to harmonics, etc.), and 120V would
appear across the inputs of both loads.
If a break in the neutral occurs (shown with the X marks
in the figure), then the current cannot flow through the
neutral. In this case the loads are now in series with
a 240V voltage source, and the current through each
must be the same. The voltage across each load now
depends on their individual impedances, and in this
case (assuming for the sake of discussion that theyre
linear loads), the computer would have 4/10th of the
240V, while the light would have 6/10th putting 96V
on the computer, and 144V on the light. The more
unbalanced the loads, the lower the voltage on one
leg, and the higher on the other. If the loads happen
to be well balanced, the condition can persist without
causing many symptoms, especially if the neutral isnt
completely open.
WHITE PAPER:
LOOSE NEUTRAL GRAPH TEMPLATE
Fi gure 1. Two l oads are
shown; the difference
in current woul d fl ow
through the neutral
Figure 2. Template location
Fi gure 3. Loose
Neutral Graph
DT Primary
120V L1
Computer
Light
6A
4A 120V L2
N
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min/maxes are reversed- channel 1 maximum is plotted
with the channel 2 minimum. These are all one cycle
min/max values the stripchart average voltage is not
plotted. In both cases, the minimum is in blue, and
maximum is in red. Since the characteristic of a loose
neutral is that one leg rises while one leg falls, the
max and mins from opposite legs are plotted together.
Which specific leg rises, and which falls depends on
the actual load balance at that time, and can change
from moment to moment. In a loose neutral situation
there will likely be a large separation between the
max and min values, but that separation could appear
in either plot. This graph shows several instances of
separation in the bottom plot; one is circled in orange.
If the loose neutral lasts for longer than the stripchart
interval, then the separation would affect both the
individual max and min for each channel, and in that
case the separation would appear in both plots at the
same time. If the condition doesnt last for the entire
interval, the separation only appears in one plot. In
the example from Figure 1, before the open neutral,
the min, max (and average) for L1 and L2 would all be
120V. During the open neutral, L1 would go to 96V, and
L2 to 144V. If this lasted for just a few cycles in a single
stripchart interval, the min for L1 would be 96V, but the
max would still be 120V, and for L2, the min would be
120V, and the max 144V. If the open neutral persisted
for an entire stripchart interval, the min and max for
L1 would be 96V, and the min and max for L2 would
be 144V, and the signs would appear in both plots.
Thus, we can judge how intermittent the condition is by
seeing if the separation appears both plots, or just one.
Zooming out to the entire recording session (Figure 4),
we see many possible loose neutral excursions in the
bottom plot, and some in both. Zooming in to an area
WHITE PAPER:
LOOSE NEUTRAL GRAPH TEMPLATE
Fi gure 4. Loose neutral
graph for the entire
sessi on
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where both plots show excursions (Figure 5), there are
times when both plots show problems, and periods of
sustained loose neutral conditions.
A second example is shown in Figure 6. Here there
are sustained excursions (as seen by their presence
in the top and bottom plot), but just at the very start
WHITE PAPER:
LOOSE NEUTRAL GRAPH TEMPLATE
Fi gure 5. Both top
and bottom pl ots show
excursi ons
Fi gure 6. Sustained
excursi ons at the start
and end of the recording
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and end of the recording. This could possibly indicate
an intermittent connection that was brought to visibility
by the meter technician physically handling the meter
base during installation and removal.
A third example is shown in Figure 7 (entire recording
graphed), and Figure 8 (zoomed in). The condition
doesnt appear in a sustained fashion, and the Loose
Neutral Report was not triggered. A typical waveform
WHITE PAPER:
LOOSE NEUTRAL GRAPH TEMPLATE
Fi gure 7. Very short,
intermittent excursi ons
Fi gure 8. The l oose
neutral does not appear
in a sustained fashi on,
and the report hasn t
been tri ggered
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from this recording is shown in Figure 9, graphed as an
RMS capture (where a sliding RMS window is applied
to the raw waveforms). Channel 1 rises to 137V, and
channel 2 falls to 108V, but the condition only lasts for
around 3 cycles not enough to affect the one second
average voltage.
The graph template only requires RMS voltage
stripcharts to be recorded. Since all PMI recorders
have one cycle RMS resolution on the min and max
readings, regardless of the stripchart interval, just
about any single phase recording has the required
data to generate the loose neutral graph. Any existing
file may be analyzed with the new template, as well as
new files.
Note that the separation of the voltage legs can be
indicative of the presence of a loose or open neutral,
but is not conclusive. More importantly, even if no
separation of the voltage legs is seen, a loose or open
neutral may exist it cannot be concluded that a loose
neutral doesnt exist if the graph looks good. Well
balanced loads, returns through a ground, etc. can
mask the symptoms of a loose neutral in the recording.
CONCLUSION
A new graph template is available for ProVision
specifically for loose neutral investigations. By
graphing two channels min and max values together,
the characteristic signature of a loose/open neutral
condition is made as visible as possible, with one cycle
resolution.
Chris Mullins
VP of Engineering & Operations
cmullins@powermonitors.com
www.powermonitors.com
800.296.4120
WHITE PAPER:
LOOSE NEUTRAL GRAPH TEMPLATE
Fi gure 9. RMS capture
of a short l oose neutral
event