Message:18121 In: TECH.WW

From: G8MNY
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 26 08:29:00 Z
Newsgroups: TECH.WW
Subject: Measuring Motor Efficiency
Message-ID: <53298_GB7CIP>
Path: GB7RJJ|GB7BED|GB7YEW|GB7CIP

R:260301/0831Z 9142@GB7RJJ.#79.GBR.EURO LinBPQ6.0.25
R:260301/0831Z 7459@GB7BED.#21.GBR.EU LinBPQ6.0.25
R:260301/0831Z 14980@GB7YEW.#79.GBR.EURO LinBPQ6.0.24
R:260301/0829Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:53298 [Caterham Surrey GBR]

From: G8MNY@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To : TECH@WW

By G8MNY (New Feb 09)
(8 Bit ASCII graphics use code page 437 or 850, Terminal Font)

To determine the efficiency of an electric motor 2 things are needed, input &
output powers.

INPUT POWER.
Two items to be measured and multiplied together, Voltage & Current.
With DC this is relatively easy, but pulse currents can mean "DC RMS" not an
"average meter" is needed, but for an AC motor not so easy, as there is power
factor as well as any pulse power (core saturation) to take into account.

DC motor AC Motor
Current Current
� | | | � |~| <-Saturation (3+5th harmonic)
�~-�~�~'�'�~~~~� �~ � / \ /
� � � � � � / \ /
�� / \ / Current lagging
Brush Commutation noise � |_| Voltage by < 90�

DC Motor AC Motor
Voltage Voltage.-. .
�� / \ /
� � \ /
�� \ /
Power = Volts x Amps � '�' Power = instantaneous V x I

With modern true RMS meters and true AC power meter this can be can be
accurately measured otherwise you are guessing!

OUTPUT POWER
Using Si units you end up with everything in Watts. Again two items, Force
(Newtons) over a Distance (m) for linear measurement, or Torque times RPM for a
shaft power. The torque can be measured from 1st principles with a simple
mechanical break.

Pivot|<----d----> Pivot
============�============= ==� beam
Balance �Belt � � �
beam � � \�/ Belt �
� _ � Weights � Flat
�/~_~\� 1kg=9.81N /~~~~~\ �Ĵ Pulley
BREAK � (�) � � �=� Water
\_~_/ Centre hole in \Motor/ �Ĵ
~ pulley for water /~~~~~~\

The 2 belt positions to the beam are at the pulley diameter apart, but with the
central pivot slightly offset, this gives is self tensioning action as the
weights are put on. The flat pulley has 2 side disk that insure the belt can't
come off. For powers of over a few 10s of Watts water cooling is used inside
the spinning pulley & allowed to boil off. The pivot's hight is set to keep the
beam level.
With this set up the force (N) on the balance beam equals the torque and is set
by the weights at the distance d (m) on the beam to pivot.

e.g. 0.1kg x 9.81 @ 1m = 0.981 Nm

The RPM can be done from the motor shaft with several types of pick up (e.g. on
the pulley) or even on a small DC brush motor from the commutator noise.

==== ��Ŀ ________
DC>�((()��Ĵ�ĴTriggered ��ĴCounter �
� � Monstable� �or timer�
3pole ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Motor
��
Here the monstable is set to just wider than the commutator break time, so that
counter sees cleaned up pulses of 6 per Rev due to the 3 breaks per brush. The
inductor needed to see the current pulses across it, can often be just that of
the connecting wires. So say with a simple 3 pole motor 120Hz on the counter
equals 20 Rev/s & 1200RPM.

With say a torque of 0.981 Nm & 20 Rev/s = 19.62 Watts

Power Watts = Torque (Force x Distance) x Revs per second.

With AC synchronous motors the shaft RPM is a few Revs per second below the
mains field speed, called slip. e.g. a 4 pole motor on 50Hz may be @ 1400RPM or
3.33 Rev/s slow seen strobing with a lamp.

EFFICIENCY
With everything in Watts it is straight forward to do calculations

Output
Efficiency % = ------ X 100
Input

The motor losses are of course mainly in heat, windage, bearings and noise/
vibration. Very good ones will be >80%, but some light weight motors (e.g. for
carrying like hand tools) may be very poor @ 50%, and rely very heavily on fan
cooling to allow that power rating. Faulty motors will show up below 20%.

For a series of results to find say the best efficiency, put all the results on
a spread sheet and plot graphs etc.

Why Don't U send an interesting bul?

73 De John, G8MNY @ GB7CIP

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