Patent ID: 6906507

Claim:
A method of determining the electrical service type provided by an electrical service provider, comprising the steps of: configuring an apparatus to connect to a polyphase electrical service wherein each phase of said polyphase electrical service has a voltage component and a current component; configuring said apparatus with at least one analog-to-digital converter interfaced to selected phases of said electrical service, said analog-to-digital converter configured to provide digital representations of said voltage component and said current component; configuring said apparatus with memory for storing reference information relating to at least phase for at least one type of electrical service wherein said reference information includes at least an ideal current angle for said at least one phase of said polyphase electrical service; configuring said apparatus with a microprocessor interfaced with said at least one analog-to-digital converter and said memory; configuring said microprocessor to designate one phase of said polyphase electrical service as the base phase and one of the other phases of said polyphase electrical service as the test phase; configuring said microprocessor to determine a measured power factor angle for said test phase of said polyphase electrical service; configuring said microprocessor to determine a measured current phase angle for the current component for said test phase of said polyphase electrical service, wherein said measured current phase angle is referenced to the waveform of the current component for said base phase, wherein said measured current phase angle is determined using said digital representations; and configuring said microprocessor to automatically determine the electrical service type to which said apparatus is connected using said measured power factor angle, said measured current phase angle and said reference information.