Smoking a transformer??? :O !!!

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

Has anybody out there ever smoked their transformer at the pole? I did the math and my sugar house with everything running will pull about 9.6 KVA on my 10 KVA transformer. I am worried that the load carried by the sugar house and the house (Both on same transformer) is over the 10 KVA available... Anybody ever have trouble with the transformer or anything?

[unc23win]

Your best bet is to ask the electric company they will more than likely put in a bigger transformer for you. When I discussed my service with the engineer from the electric coop he automatically included a bigger transformer for future expansions. Around here with all the expanding sugaring operations blowing transformers is not uncommon (many have 400 amps or more) from what he said. Better to make sure you won't have problems now rather finding out during the season. With our co-op you pay for the service and they pay for everything else to make sure you have the power you are suppose to.

[Mark]

Has anybody out there ever smoked their transformer at the pole? I did the math and my sugar house with everything running will pull about 9.6 KVA on my 10 KVA transformer. I am worried that the load carried by the sugar house and the house (Both on same transformer) is over the 10 KVA available... Anybody ever have trouble with the transformer or anything?

I had a problem with mine but my uncle spotted the snow melted away from the ground transformer and had his workers come out with a bigger one. Went from a 7,5 kva to a 50 kva. I was lucky I did not ruin any of my motors with the big voltage drops I was getting. Had to shut down the RO and vacuum for 20 minutes while they made the switch. Good to know the right people.

[lew]

Yup. We toasted one 2 years ago. Obviously it was late at night on a weekend when we first fired up the new RO. the electric company showed up 3 hours later with a new transformer and the thing was still smoking. Last year we upgraded our service to 400 amps in the sugar house to accomadate upgrades.