10Hp Star(Wye) Delta Motor Starter

Ulma Doctor

Infinitely Curious
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i recently had some time to tinker in the garage.
i was able to construct a 10HP Star Delta motor starter for use on 6 wire and 9 wire motors.
drawings shown are for 6 wire motors only!

for the uninitiated, a star delta motor starter uses contactors to switch between star and delta motor wiring.
star wound motors draw 1/3 the start up current vs the delta wound motor for the same Hp rating.
the disadvantage to a star wound motor, is that it has 1/3 the torque of a delta wound motor.
the star delta control system can be considered a hybrid of sorts.
the motor starts in lower amp draw conditions of the wye(star) winding connection for starting, and switches to delta winding connection for higher efficiency.
at around 80% of the motor's rated speed the wye(star) winding , becomes less efficient to power a motor than the delta configuration of the windings.
at near peak of the wye(star) potential (or shortly thereafter) , the solid state timer will switch contactors responsible from star to delta operation.
star delta switching can be done manually, or by means of a solid state timer relay.
i made both iterations before deciding the later as the design i will stick with.

this is not the only way to accomplish the end result, this is how i did it....

first the sketch...

STAR DELTA V1.jpg
then construction...
i had 90% of the components lying around the shop, i ordered a couple items from amazing and epay.
i wired up the control system first, then wired the line connections.
i used a 25 amp main contactor an overload relay capable of 18 amps , 2, 20 amp contactors for the star and delta, 2 22mm momentary switches (1NC, 1NO), 1 22mm maintained contact switch (NC), a solid state timer, some DIN rail, wire ferrules, spade and fork connectors, control wiring and,SOOW cable
i had to test the system out so i made a short video explaining the control system and giving a op demo without a motor in series
if you got nothing better to do for the next 7 minutes, have a look....



i made a drawing of the control system as in operation, for the interested.

(note: transformer supply and/or MCCB use recommended, as is the overload relay and interlocking contactor operation, for simplicity MCCB and Transformer not shown in drawings)

star delta WIRING .jpg
after making the video,
i went on a scavenger hunt around the garage and found a small .1Kw motor to run with the star delta system.
the problem is that i don't have 3 phase readily available .
after rummaging around i found my stash of small oil filled run capacitors- i found a 7.5 Uf capacitor.
capacitance values for running 3 phase motors on single phase is about 70Uf per 1Kw or about 53Uf pr Hp
the .1 Kw motor would require 7Uf capacitance , the 7.5 Uf capacitor i have will work fine although it has slightly higher capacity.
i was able to supply single phase 240v and wire in the run capacitor and run the small motor on single phase in both delta and star.
here's the video....


i also made a full circuit drawing of the single phase operation for the interested. (MCCB and Transformer omitted)

SINGLE PHASE STAR DELTA 3 PHASE MOTOR SSR TIMER.jpg
i'll be starting larger motors soon!
stay tuned!!!
 
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The centrifuges I commissioned used star-delta starting if they didn't have a VFD. I probably have a wiring diagram somewhere around here, but what you did looks like what I remember. These machines took up to 8 minutes to get up to speed with the star staring, watching them peg the amp meters was impressive!
 
The centrifuges I commissioned used star-delta starting if they didn't have a VFD. I probably have a wiring diagram somewhere around here, but what you did looks like what I remember. These machines took up to 8 minutes to get up to speed with the star staring, watching them peg the amp meters was impressive!
wow, the start times can be crazy long dependent on the motor size.
i don't really go larger than 15Hp in the motors i experience, so the start up times are kinda quick in relativity
 
wow, the start times can be crazy long dependent on the motor size.
i don't really go larger than 15Hp in the motors i experience, so the start up times are kinda quick in relativity
These were 200HP motors and about 5 ton rotating assemblies, so a bit bigger than what you are dealing with :)
 
Nice work Mike. I worked on two 250HP centrifugal chillers for quite a few years that used the Wye-Delta starting system. As stated above, I was pretty impressed the first time I saw these machines start up and peg the 2000 amp meters. Fun stuff.

Ted
 
Thanks Mike, this is very interesting, informative and well explained. I hope to one day acquire a machine that requires such a circuit!
 
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