Power quality recorders, analyzers and power monitors- What's the best choice?
What's the difference ?
Many power monitors can record voltage, current, power parameters, and some can record harmonic information. Power quality recorders or power quality analyzers often do the same. So what's the difference?
Many power monitors do just that- monitor power. Used for load profiling, these units typically provide information on current draw and power factor over time. The user enters in an interval and then gets a one cycle max, min, and average of cycles over that interval. Depending on what the user asks to record, the interval is typically 10 seconds to one minute. The recorder then records the parameters and provides trend line data for the interval selected. Unfortunately, this type of trend data does not truly represent the actual parameters profile in enough detail.
For instance, let's say there is a fault on the line and a reclosure trys to re-energize three times prior to giving up. These types of power monitors would show only a single min/max envelope during that time period. There are however a few power quality recorders and monitors that will show all three attempts. See below:
