Test & Measurement

Tip of the Week: Environmental Problems and Your Motors

March 23, 2015

Maintaining the environment of the motor is as important as maintaining the motor itself.

Maintaining the environment of the motor is as important as maintaining the motor itself. For example, as voltage imbalance increases past 2%, you get dramatically more heat in the motor windings. Excess heat stresses the winding insulation. If this condition persists, the insulation will fail. The result may be a phase-to-phase short (a motor running with this condition is said to be “single phasing” because only one phase remains “healthy”) or a phase-to-ground short.

A phase monitor on the supply will alert you to this sort of fault, but you still have a damaged motor. Power monitoring on the supply can alert you when voltage imbalance is greater than 2%. However, if you perform periodic thermographic analysis on your critical motors, you can quickly identify an overheating condition. If your motor PMs are good, you know to look for environmental problems such as voltage imbalance, harmonics, waveform distortion, load issues, ventilation problems, and contaminants.

About the Author

Mark Lamendola

Mark is an expert in maintenance management, having racked up an impressive track record during his time working in the field. He also has extensive knowledge of, and practical expertise with, the National Electrical Code (NEC). Through his consulting business, he provides articles and training materials on electrical topics, specializing in making difficult subjects easy to understand and focusing on the practical aspects of electrical work.

Prior to starting his own business, Mark served as the Technical Editor on EC&M for six years, worked three years in nuclear maintenance, six years as a contract project engineer/project manager, three years as a systems engineer, and three years in plant maintenance management.

Mark earned an AAS degree from Rock Valley College, a BSEET from Columbia Pacific University, and an MBA from Lake Erie College. He’s also completed several related certifications over the years and even was formerly licensed as a Master Electrician. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past Chairman of the Kansas City Chapters of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. Mark also served as the program director for, a board member of, and webmaster of, the Midwest Chapter of the 7x24 Exchange. He has also held memberships with the following organizations: NETA, NFPA, International Association of Webmasters, and Institute of Certified Professional Managers.