{"id":1069,"date":"2017-02-07T21:47:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T21:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2017-02-07T21:47:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T21:47:20","slug":"using-a-vfd-to-convert-single-phase-to-three-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/?p=1069","title":{"rendered":"Using a VFD To Convert Single-Phase to Three-Phase Power (Updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1843\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1843\" src=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Jim_Mimlitz_Newsletter-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Jim_Mimlitz_Newsletter.jpg 2x\" alt=\"admin\" class=\"avatar avatar-150 wp-user-avatar wp-user-avatar-150 photo\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1843\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Mimlitz, NRI<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Occasionally, a new water district pumping station will be installed in a location that is not served by 3-phase power.<\/p>\n<p>The options to run the pumps on\u00a03-phase\u00a0include (but are not limited to):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pay the electric utility a fee (often prohibitive) to bring 3-phase power to the site.<\/li>\n<li>Generate the 3-phase power on-site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To generate 3-phase power on-site for a pump motor, a\u00a0VFD is often a very economical option.\u00a0 However, a VFD that is powered by single-phase must generally be derated to account for the increased current load on certain components within the\u00a0front end of the VFD.\u00a0 A common derating rule-of-thumb is to derate\u00a0a single-phase\u00a0driven\u00a0VFD to 57.8% of\u00a0its 3-Phase rating, or in other words, up-size the VFD to at least 173% of motor rating.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1538\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Pump_Station_480V_Single_Phase_01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1538\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1538\" src=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Pump_Station_480V_Single_Phase_01-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"435\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1538\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Booster Pump Application: Station Fed by 480VAC Single-Phase Power. Note the Single Transformer on the Power Pole. Phase Generation Performed by Station&#8217;s VFD&#8217;s Shown in Next Photo. (Hamilton, IL)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1539\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Pump_Station_480V_Single_Phase_02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1539\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1539\" src=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Pump_Station_480V_Single_Phase_02-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"435\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1539\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Booster Pump Application: 3-Phase 480VAC Pump Motors Driven by Allen Bradley PowerFlex Variable Frequency Drives, Which Generate 480VAC Three-Phase from 480VAC Single-Phase Inputs. (Hamilton, IL)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1073\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Single-Phase-VFD_001.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1073\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1073\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1073\" src=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Single-Phase-VFD_001-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Single-Phase VFD Pump Application. Note The Power Input Has Two Wires, And The Motor Output Has Three Wires.\" width=\"580\" height=\"773\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1073\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Single-Phase VFD HVAC Scroll Compressor Pump Application: Note that the 240VAC Power Input (Left)\u00a0Has Two Wires L1,L3 (Single-Phase), and the 240VAC Motor Output (Right) Has Three Wires L1, L2, L3\u00a0(3-Phase).<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Navionics Research Inc.<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0our most commonly-used <a href=\"http:\/\/ab.rockwellautomation.com\/Drives\/Low-Voltage-AC-Drives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Rockwell\/Allen-Bradley VFDs<\/strong> <\/a>include the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ab.rockwellautomation.com\/Drives\/PowerFlex-400\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PowerFlex 400 (3-350 HP)<\/a><\/strong> and <a href=\"http:\/\/ab.rockwellautomation.com\/Drives\/PowerFlex-523\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>PowerFlex 523 (0.5-30 HP)<\/strong> <\/a>families.<\/p>\n<p>When powered by single-phase, Rockwell recommends that the PowerFlex 400 VFDs\u00a0be conservatively derated to\u00a035%; and the PowerFlex 523 VFDs conservatively derated to 50%.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if a pump and motor are rated for 7.5 HP 3-Phase, then a PowerFlex 400 rated for at least 7.5\/0.35=21.4 HP is required, or a PowerFlex 523 rated for at least 7.5\/0.50=15 HP is required.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that it is always possible to over-size a VFD for its application, regardless of whether the VFD is utilized within a 3-phase generation scenario.\u00a0 However, an engineering\u00a0rule-of-thumb is to never exceed the VFD rating by more than a factor of 10; and of course economics would also dictate avoiding\u00a0such gross oversizing.<\/p>\n<p>The use of an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Current_limiting_reactor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AC Line Reactor<\/a>\u00a0is also beneficial \u2014 especially in single-phase-powered situations.\u00a0 Because the power-up inrush current is more concentrated due to the missing phases, the inrush current-dampening action due to the\u00a0reactor&#8217;s impedance\u00a0will help to protect the input diodes and DC capacitors.<\/p>\n<p>In such single-phase-powered situations, the AC Line Reactor should be sized to 173% of the motor 3-phase rating. \u00a0For details, a good reference is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.automationdirect.com\/static\/manuals\/aclrinserts\/singlephase_insert.pdf\"><strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from AutomationDirect.com, or <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/PDF\/MTE_Reactor_Single_Phase.pdf\">HERE<\/a><\/strong> from MTE Corporation.<\/p>\n<p>Are you interested in using a VFD to create 3-phase power in a new pump station application?\u00a0 Or perhaps you already have a station with an add-a-phase device that you would like to eliminate?\u00a0 If so, give us a call.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll be glad to discuss the VFD solution with you in detail.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Telemetry, SCADA, &amp; Controls Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Was this article helpful?\u00a0 Would you be interested in receiving updates such as these in our occasional email-delivered newsletter?\u00a0 If so, here&#8217;s our sign-up page:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wireless-telemetry.com\/signup\/signup.htm\">Subscribe to\u00a0Navionics Research&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Telemetry, SCADA, &amp; Controls Newsletter&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Occasionally, a new water district pumping station will be installed in a location that is not served by 3-phase power. The options to run the pumps on\u00a03-phase\u00a0include (but are not limited to): Pay the electric utility a fee (often prohibitive) to bring 3-phase power to the site. Generate the 3-phase power on-site. To generate 3-phase <span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span> <span class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/?p=1069\" class=\"more-link\"><span>Read More &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,13,20],"tags":[22,87,139,148,162],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-applications","category-general","category-power","category-vfd","tag-3-phase","tag-line-reactor","tag-single-phase","tag-three-phase","tag-vfd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wireless-telemetry.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}