SNRG 155 – Renewable Technologies

LAB 2A – AC / DC MEASUREMENTS

OBJECTIVES

In this Lab, you will get hands-on experience using a portable multi-meter to measure
AC voltages and currents as well as DC voltages and currents in practical applications.

After completing this lab you should be able to:

• Assess whether a particular measurement is likely to be AC or DC
• Measure AC voltages and currents
• Measure DC voltages and currents
• Use a clamp-on ammeter

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

• Clamp-on Multi-meter

DISCUSSION

Batteries, fuel cells and solar cells all produce something called direct current (DC). The
positive and negative terminals of a battery are always, respectively, positive and
negative. Current always flows in the same direction between those two terminals.

The power that comes from a power plant, on the other hand, is called alternating
current (AC). The direction of the current reverses, or alternates, 60 times per second (in
Canada) or 50 times per second (in Europe). The power that is available at a wall socket
in Canada is 120-volt, 60-hertz AC power.

Direct Current
DC is defined as the “unidirectional” flow of current; current only flows in one direction.
Voltage and current can vary over time so long as the direction of flow does not change.
To simplify things, we will assume that voltage is a constant. For example, we assume
that an AA battery provides 1.5V, which can be described in mathematical terms as:
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Alternating Current
AC can come in a number of forms, as long as the voltage and current are alternating. If
we hook up an oscilloscope to a circuit with AC and plot its voltage over time, we might
see a number of different waveforms. The most common type of AC is the sine wave.
The AC in most homes and offices has an oscillating voltage that produces a sine wave.

We often want to describe an AC waveform in mathematical terms. There are three parts to
a sine wave: amplitude, frequency, and phase.

Looking at just voltage, we can describe a sine wave as the mathematical function:
 SNRG 155 – Renewable Technologies

V(t) is our voltage as a function of time, which means that our voltage changes as time
changes. The equation to the right of the equals sign describes how the voltage changes
over time.
VP is the amplitude. This describes the maximum voltage that our sine wave can reach in
either direction, meaning that our voltage can be +VP volts, -VP volts, or somewhere in
between.
The sin() function indicates that our voltage will be in the form of a periodic sine wave, which
is a smooth oscillation around 0V.
2π is a constant that converts the frequency from cycles/second (in hertz) to angular
frequency (radians per second).
f describes the frequency of the sine wave. This is given in the form of hertz or units per
second. The frequency tells how many times a particular wave form (in this case, one cycle
of our sine wave - a rise and a fall) occurs within one second.
t is our dependent variable: time (measured in seconds). As time varies, our waveform
varies.
φ describes the phase of the sine wave. Phase is a measure of how shifted the waveform is
with respect to time. It is often given as a number between 0 and 360 and measured in
degrees. Because of the periodic nature of the sine wave, if the wave form is shifted by 360°
it becomes the same waveform again, as if it was shifted by 0°. For simplicity, we will
assume that phase is 0° for the rest of this tutorial.
We can turn to our outlet for a good example of how an AC waveform works. In Canada, the
power provided to our homes is AC (120V RMS) with 170V peak (amplitude) and 60Hz
(frequency). We can plug these numbers into our formula to get the equation (remember that
we are assuming our phase is 0):

𝑉 (𝑡) = 170 sin(2𝜋60𝑡)

Peak, Peak-to-Peak, RMS

The term “RMS” stands for “Root-Mean-Squared”. RMS is generally defined as the
“amount of AC power that produces the same heating effect as an equivalent DC
power”. The RMS value is the square root of the mean (average) value of the squared
function of the instantaneous values. The symbols used for defining an RMS value are
VRMS or IRMS. The term RMS, only refers to time-varying sinusoidal voltages or currents
and is sometimes referred to as the “effective value”.

The outlet voltage in Canada is 120 VAC. This value is assumed to indicate an effective
value of “120 Volts RMS”. This means then that the sinusoidal RMS voltage from the
wall sockets of a Canadian home is capable of producing the same average positive
power as 120 volts of steady DC voltage.
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When dealing with Alternating Voltages (or currents) we are faced with the problem of
how we represent the signal magnitude. One easy way is to use the peak values or
peak-to-peak values for the waveform. Another common method is to use the effective
value which is also known by its more common expression of Root Mean Square or
simply the RMS value. Note that AC voltmeters measure RMS.
 SNRG 155 – Renewable Technologies

LAB 2A – AC / DC MEASUREMENTS MARK: /10

Name Student Number

Measure the voltages and currents at each of the following stations. Before taking each
measurement:
1) Rationalize whether the measurement is likely to be AC or DC

2) Set your meter for the appropriate measurement

3) Zero your meter before taking current measurements

VOLTAGE
Station # Description Value Unit Type (AC/DC)
1 Wall Receptacle

2 Trojan Battery

3 Signal Generator

4 Deka Battery

5 RE Panel Receptacle

6 Two Power-Tek Batteries in

Series
7 Benchtop Power Supply

8 PV Module

CURRENT
Station # Value Unit Type (AC/DC)
9 PV Module

10 Light Tester Incandescent Lamp

(Black Wire)
Light Tester Incandescent Lamp
(White Wire)
Light Tester Incandescent Lamp
(Green Wire)
11 Light Tester LED Lamp

12 Pilot Light

13 Small Motor

14 Variable Frequency Drive (Input)