Home run arc detection at the photovoltaic string level using multiple current sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9502885-B2
Application number	US-201313836345-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Nov 16, 2012
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods of detecting arcing in DC power systems that can differentiate between DC arcs and load-switching noise. The systems and methods can determine, within a plurality of predetermined time intervals, at least the pulse count (PC) per predetermined time interval, and the pulse duration (PD) per predetermined time interval, in which the PC and the PD can correspond to the number and the intensity of potential arcing events in a DC power system, respectively. The systems and methods can process the PC and PD using one or more arc fault detection algorithms, thereby differentiating between DC arcs and load-switching noise with increased reliability.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of detecting arcing in a DC power system, the DC power system including a plurality of current outputs provided over a home run cable and connected to a load, the method comprising:
providing an arc fault detector including a plurality of current sensors, a comparator, and a processor;
connecting the plurality of current sensors to the plurality of current outputs, sensing a plurality of currents flowing in the DC power system at the respective cu…

Assignees

• Sensata Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Martin Lee
• Kang Jianhong
• Pellon Christian V
• Kawate Keith W

Classifications

• G01R31/40

  Physics · mapped topic

• H02S50/10

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02H3/445 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F19/00

  Physics · mapped topic

• H02H1/0015

  Electricity · mapped topic