2 pole circuits question

[HansF]

I’m deciding which of my circuits I’m going to monitor with my new 16CT Gen 2 Vue.  I’ve decided on 12 of the 16 CTs.  I therefore have 4 CTs to go, and about 10 single breaker circuits to select from, PLUS the second leg of 5 dual breakers to consider.

I understand we usually clamp one side of the dual breaker items (AC, Stove, Dryer) under the assumption that the load is balanced.

I also have a dual 30A breaker going to a sub panel which includes baseboard heaters that are on a single pole. breaker in the sub.  That’s definitely unbalanced load.

I also have a SolarEdge inverter feeding power in on a dual 40A breaker.

My questions:

1) How good is the assumption that AC, Stove, and Dryer are indeed balanced?  Do I stick with one CT on each and multiply?
2) Since the sub panel is unbalanced, should I assume I need one on each leg to get a good idea of my heaters use?
3) Do I need to clamp both sides of the solar system, or just one and multiply?

Thanks in advance for advice.

[currentdraw]

You can try and experiment. I found out the following:

The oven is fairly well balanced. So is the EV charger.

The Dryer is not – especially on energy saving mode, it will only use one of the taps. So what I do is only monitor that tap and use a multiplier like 1.7

For the Solar, I think one would be fine. For the baseboard – probably both if they are hooked on both sides and can be used indpependently.

 

[HansF]

Interesting.

Many thanks for the detailed response.

[megachase]

Hey Currentdraw, (or anyone) I’m wondering the same about my well pump. I looks like the start cap is on 1 leg and the (capless) run line on the other. Wondering which leg to clamp and what multiplier to use. I wonder if there would be a way for the app to make an assumption based on the balance? Or is there? Are the circuit profiles just icons or is there and algorithm baked in?

[DoubleEdgedWombat]

If there is no neutral, the circuit will be balanced by design (there is nowhere for the current to go except back out the other side).  If there is a neutral, you will need to clamp both hots.

EDIT: With the exception of EV chargers.  They have a neutral because they’ve adopted the 14-50 as the “standard” outlet, but very few of them if any actually use it.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by DoubleEdgedWombat.

[megachase]

That makes a ridiculous amount of sense! Thanx. There is no neutral going from the sub panel to the switch and from the switch to the control box, where the start cap lives. From there to the motor there is black/red/”yellow”, but I guess what is connected to the subpanel is all that really matters. Thinking out loud, thank you!

[Author]

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