Description
ERI Series Electronic Loads feed the consumed energy back to the local power grid. Another feature of these devices is an extensive variety of standard data interfaces. Apart from Ethernet, USB and RS-232 there is a standard CAN interface. GPIB can be installed as an option (ERI02). Programming is done in SCPI with an extensive command syntax.
Cooling
ERI loads recover the consumed energy instead of converting to thermal energy. Thus, electricity costs are reduced and the environment is only slightly warmed. As a consequence, in many cases air-condition is unnecessary. Energy recycling loads do not need powerful fans. That makes the devices acceptably quiet and therefore perfectly fit for laboratory operation.
Energy Recycling
The consumed energy is fed back to the mains supply with an efficiency of ca. 90 %. The operation in the sense of a power generation into the public electricity grid is not provided with these energy recycling loads. The load must be connected to a low-voltage mains supply with a fixed installed and separately fused supply line. The ERI load has a simple and non-redundant monitoring of the power supply. If limit values are exceeded, it switches off the power stage unit. This monitoring does not replace any grid or system protection which must be installed if necessary for the protection of persons and the local grid.
Functions
The units provide constant current, constant voltage, constant resistance and constant power mode. In addition, protections for current and voltage can be set in any mode. A data acquisition function allows to store measurement data on an external USB flash drive.