Yokogawa sees a growing need for accurate power measure in today’s more energy-conscious world.
Not only battery-powered device, but white goods and industrial systems need tight control of power consumption to comply with emerging IEC and EN standards and increasingly complex and stringent specifications on energy efficiency.
Yokogawa has added to its range of digital power meters the WT300 series which now offer simultaneous measurement and extend the capability to high current systems such as induction cookers.
“Power consumption is becoming more critical in development of many more types of products – home appliances, cars and lighting systems,” said Terry Marrinan, Yokogawa’s v-p, test & measurement for Europe & Africa.
“Standards are putting pressure on manufacturers, they are looking for ways to get energy consumption down,” said Marrinan.
The understanding is that this requires more precise power measurement. The traditional approach of using an oscilloscope for basic power measurement may not be accurate enough if a design must conform to a power standard.
These power meters offer a basic accuracy of 0.1% of reading, “guaranteed accuracy over the entire measurement range (from 1% to 130%)”, said Marrinan.
They have a measurement range from standby power levels of a few milliamperes up to the 40A currents used in induction cookers.
They can now be used for harmonic measurement capabilities, including the ability to carry out simultaneous measurement of normal power parameters such as RMS, mean or DC power along with measurement of harmonics up to the 50th order.
Yokogawa maintains the accuracy of its power meters through regular calibration at its standards laboratory in the Netherlands.
“This facility is the only industrial, non-government or national, organisation to offer traceable power calibration, to national and international standards, at frequencies up to 100kHz,” said Marrinan.
Other features of the new instruments include a bandwidth of DC and 0.5 Hz to 100 kHz (up to 20 kHz for 40 A on the WT310HC), plus an auto-range function for measurement and integration.
