If so, did any of your equipment get fried? I’m no electrician, but it seems like that could be bad for various pieces of equipment (chillers, recirculaters, rotovaps, vac pumps, etc.). If the power does suddenly go out, is it best to unplug everything so that there are no complications when it comes back on?
And for everyone else, do you have measures in place to minimize damage should the power suddenly go out? Is there anything other than a back up generator that could be employed?
Worst part is if you use a wet vacuum pump with no antisuckback valve. Oil in the oil is no fun. Chiller and other equipment should have no trouble unless you’re running 3P and you only lose one phase. I’d recommend some sort of phase loss protection if the equipment doesn’t already have it (which pretty much any reputable manufacturer would).
I have had the power go out while using the rotary evaporator. Nothing bad happened whatsoever. I turned off the equipment until the power came back on and resumed my work
We blew up the power company transformer while I had everything running. Horrible surges and brown out before it blew. Thank god no equipment was damaged, but I was sure nervously awaiting power restoration so I could check everything out. Turns out you can finish a distillation on a generator…
Definitely unplug everything until the power comes back on. And a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) in combination with a backup generator is the best way to go. Don’t forget to install a surge arrester on the main panel. They have saved my ass more than once.
It absolutely sucks and you should wire in a RV generator plug to your location and have a bare min to bring down reactions and rotos and such…I always had a 10kw Genny on standby in case I needed it.
I’ve done the same… twice. With cls and everything mid run. Most stressful couple hours I’ve ever had.
@SidViscous
Not nearly enough equipment has phase loss protection installed or built in from the factory, especially on standalone equipment like 3ph vac pumps. Personally I think a good size trap - cold or not, though cold is certainly better - is always a good idea between your vac pump and whatever you’ve got it hooked to so you don’t risk aspirating vac pump oil into your cannabinoids.
Adding a contactor with a phase loss detection device to something that doesn’t have it is not that difficult and probably only a few hundred bucks, though unfortunately few electricians that don’t regularly work with industrial fares will know how to do so or what to use & how to configure it. When you lose a phase on some things they’ll either run way hot or run backwards - this is a big concern on 3 ph air compressors and I’d imagine vac pumps probably respond similarly.
To OP - I’ve done it a couple times due to blown transformers or fuses and once because an innatentive driver was texting and driving took out a power pole nearby - dumb jackass who previously owned the property we were on apparently took a voluntary downgrade from 400A service to 150A 3ph service and advertised it as having 400A service when the property was sold to our landlord, didn’t find that out until we exploded a transformer on the pole. Fortunately when we were running a team of 50L rotos before we got our FFE the rotos and their chillers were all spread across multiple phases and we were able to finish the day out by swapping plugs around until the power co showed up to fix the blown transformer.
phase loss relay protection is a good thing it senses power loss from line side and will shunt other phases. ups systems unless quite large will only provide minimal backup. and then …
Best thing to do is get a genny sized for your critical loads , a transfer switch in conjunction with the ups so that when the transfer switch senses power loss on line side it will auto transfer to inverted battery load until genny gets up to speed then transfer again to genny until you run out of fuel…
its a beautiful dance.
The easiest/best way IMO to handle phase loss protection in the lab is to install all 3 phase devices on one sub panel and use a breaker with a shunt trip connected to a phase loss monitor. Just make sure any critical power (like exhaust systems) are not on that panel.
FWIW, if the equipment current protection is sized properly, usually loss of a phase will cause sufficient draw on another phase to pop the breaker/fuse but it can be pretty hard on the motor. Also, let’s be honest, we don’t always do that whole one device per circuit thing
I would also be weary of using any portable gennys they don’t always run @ 60hz and the sensitive equipment will not tolerate the variance. it starts to cook pcbs and components…
unless the portables are from cummins on a tractor trailer and then still id want assurance of the cycles per second…