A quick look at a typical installation…
Let’s touch on the topic of a “Boost” Transformer:
The need for a boost transformer is dependent on your buildings supply voltage. Many industrial – commercial buildings have 3
phase power, as it is more efficient in many ways than single phase… But three phase power doesn’t actually measure 220 volts.
Three phase power is called 208 “split Y” for the most part. The “Y” part describes the making of the transformer and the 208 is it’s voltage… (they mostly always start off reading 210 though). So when the Hydro Track is installed on a three phase system the unit is only using two of the three phases, and the 110Vac circuit is only using one phase of the three. And it gets a bit more complicated than that too. You have to test the power lines while the system is “loaded” because they may test at 210 volts, which is certainly good enough, with no load on them but some, most, “pull down” to somewhere in the 190’s volt area when a heavy load is applied duringthe work day. And this may even change based on the season…
So, the simple truth is this… the unit can be installed without a boost transformer as long as the voltage remains good. 210Vac (or close to it) with a load applied, and the test has to be done during the work day while all other businesses on the same grid are also using power… Yup, we have tracked a number of failures to under voltage issues that happened during the day with max load on the buildings power grid.
On the other hand… there have also been, only about two, instances that were the opposite! The power grid in that, those, buildings was
purposefully “pre-loaded” with a boost transformer on the whole building to keep it at 210Vac during the work day with the “max” or normal daily load on
the system. The adverse side to this is that during the night, with power usage at its minimum, the voltage went way up! And they had about 255 to as high as
260 volts present at the Hydro Track when the pump kicked on during the night for its filter and heat cycle. The excessive voltage was damaging to the
pump. Luckily we had a very good service person in that area and he cared enough to go there late at night and test for this. They ended up
removing the boost transformer on their systems and their problems went away!
So, the more you know about your buildings power grid… the better! And then make the right choice…