Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

What is meant by Megger testing?

Megger testing is a type of electrical test that evaluates how well
insulation performs in a part of electrical equipment. A voltage is
provided, and then a mega-ohm meter is used to measure the
resistance of each phase connection between the motor leads and
the ground.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

Working Principle of Megger

Megger operates on the principle that current flowing through a

conductor placed in a magnetic field experiences a torque.
Mathematically, the force is proportional to the current and
the magnetic flux.

Where, Vector Force = force and direction of the current and

magnetic field.

Case (I): If the resistance has a higher value then the pointer on the
device coil will move towards infinity.

Case(II): If the resistance value is low then the pointer will indicate
zero resistance.

The comparison between the known resistance and insulation

resistance shows the condition of insulation quality. Compared to
the other electrical measuring instruments, Megger provides the
highest measurement accuracy.

Construction of Megger

A Mggger has a crank shaft with clutch mechanism. We can vary

the speed of cranking with a help of clutch. This arrangement is
located between magnets. The whole setup is called DC Generator.

On the left side of the DC generator, there is a scale showing the

resistance values from 0 to infinity.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

The circuit consists of two coils Coil-A and Coil-B. Both the coils
are connected to the DC generator

Types of Megger

There are two types of megohmmeter,

 Manually driven megohmmeter

 Electronic megohmmeter

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

Manual megger

It is a hand-operated and cranked manually type megger.

Manually operated type megger has important parts such as an
analog display, hand crank, and test lead wires.

Electronic megger

It is battery-operated. It has important parts such as a digital

display, lead wires, and a selection switch. The digital display
displays the IR value. Additionally, megger has a selector switch.
The selection switches select the range of electrical parameters, and
the indicator shows the status of the parameters.

Precautions while doing Megger test

 Never touch the leads while doing an insulation resistance

test with a megger.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

 Damaged insulation may cause arcing, therefore, it is not

advisable to perform insulation resistance in an explosive
atmosphere.
 For safety and convenience in the measurement, the
measuring instrument should have an automatic circuit
discharge function at the end of each test. Even if the megger
has the automatic discharge circuit, we must discharge it
manually for safety reasons.
 Only the authorized or competent person must carry out the
insulation resistance test because this process comprises
risk.

General Procedure for the Megger Test

Check the level of electrical insulation in any device, such a motor,
cable, or transformer, to determine how much electrical leakage
there is in the wire.

This can be done by passing the current through the devices

initially. The magnitude of the effect of this can be expressed in
terms of (MΩ)mega ohms.

Mechanism of Megger

 It is necessary to have 1000V to 5000V for the testing purposes

when working with electrical systems that have a high
voltage.
 The connection of the deflecting coil needs to be in series in
order for the current to flow and function properly
throughout the circuit.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

 A power supply coil is placed in the middle of this connection

to complete the circuit.
 Both the Current Coil Resistor and the Pressure Coil Resistor
are linked in series with each other so that the circuit can be
shielded from any potential damage.
 Using the use of two coils, such as a control coil and a
deflecting coil.
 An EMI effect will produce a test voltage when it is applied to
a megger that is operated by hand.
 When the voltage gets increases, the deflection pointer will
show that it has increased all across to infinity. In the same
way, if the current makes the deflection greater, the pointer
remains at zero.

Instruments & Equipment

1). The Megger Instrument must be calibrated.

2). A megger with a range of 500V/1000V must be used to conduct

the test.

 Wire testing shall be performed using a 500 V megger.

 For cable testing, a megger with a range of 1000 V needs to
be utilised.

Pre-Analysis Study & Preparation

 The leads that are used to connect the megger to the circuit
need to be free of any faults, and the two leads that are used
to connect the megger need to have electrical continuity.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

 It is checked by connecting the free ends of leads together

and contacting them while simultaneously pressing the ON
button on the megger in order to check for a resistance of
zero.
 PVC adopters are included for cables, along with male
adaptors for any and all PVC conduits that terminate
in panel board.
 Make sure that the insulation has been applied to each and
every wire in the panel boards.
 Before starting the testing, make sure that all of the
connections have been completed.

Electrical Continuity Test

Connect the free test probes to the any two wires that need to be
checked with the megger.

For Wires

When all of the devices are connected, both ends of the conductors
are shorted, and all of the switches are turned on, the reading that
is displayed on the megger must be zero. If the reading indicates
that there is no limit, then the circuit is open. It is necessary to
identify the source of the problem and correct it.

For Cables

In the case of cables, the outermost ends of any two phases should
be shorted, and the reading should be zero when the test is carried
out; if the meter reads infinity or some number of mega ohms, this

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

indicates that there is a fault in cable, and it ought to be fixed as

soon as possible. The exact same process needs to be repeated for
the cable’s other three conductors.

Insulation Resistance Test

For Wires

The voltage range on the Megger should be set to 500V when

testing the circuit’s wires

 Between neutral and phase

 From the phase to the earth
 From neutral to earth
The value should be infinity during the entire test with each of the
other ends of circuit conductor open. If the result is 0, there has
been a short circuit (or) the wire’s insulation has been damaged, in
which case the wire should be replaced.

For Cables

The Megger range for cables needs to be 1000V, & both ends of the
cable must be left open during testing between the phases and
neutrals.

Between Phase-to-Phase

 R-to-Y
 R-to-B

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

Y-to-B
Between Phase-to-Neutral

 R-to-N
 Y-to-N
 B-to-N
All of these readings supposed to be infinity; if they are not, the
cable’s conductors and phases are defective and need to be fixed.

Recording the findings of the tests in a way that can be referred to

and used by engineers is required. Before starting the megger test
operation, the format needs to be authorised by the Consultant.
This must be done before the process gets started.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

In order to properly test the insulation, detach from the panel

(or) equipment and then ensure that they remain isolated from the
electrical supply.

With the use of a ground (E) cable, the cables need to be checked
against one another (phase to phase). Formula for determining
minimum insulation resistance values is provided by the Insulated
Power Cable Engineers Association (UPCEA).

R=K X Log10(D/d)

Where,

R=IR Value expressed in MΩ for every 305 metres (1000 feet) of

cable.

K = Constant for the insulation material (Varnished Cambric =

2460, Thermoplastic Polyethylene = 50000 Composite polythene
30000)

K = Constant for the insulation material (Varnished Cambric =

2460, Thermoplastic Polyethylene = 50000 Composite polythene
30000)

D – Outside diameter of the conductor insulation for single-

conductor wire and cable (D=d+2c+2b = diameter of a single-
conductor cable).

d -size of the conductor’s diameter

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

c – thickness of the insulation surrounding the conductors

b – thickness of the insulation surrounding the outer-sheath

Advantages of Megger

 Measurement accuracy is high.

 Its operation consumes less time.
 Megger consists of a permanent magnet DC Generator
(source of supply), useful for numerous applications. It is
useful for measuring the resistance of insulators accurately.
 The megger value shows the insulation damage. Thus, it is
possible to identify poor or defective insulation.
 The megger can measure the resistance in the range of zero to
infinity. Thus, it has wide applications in measuring IR value
of cables, motors, transformers, generators any almost every
electrical equipment.

Disadvantages

 There will be an error in reading the value when the external

resource has a low battery, sensitivity error.
 Error due to temperature change.
 Testing with Hand-driven megger requires two persons. One
for cranking and the other for testing. Thus, it requires more
resources.
 Accuracy of hand-driven megger is less. The test voltage is
not constant in hand driven megger because the speed of
cranking changes.

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Megger Testing: Ensuring Electrical Wiring and Cable Integrity

Applications

 The electrical resistance of the insulator can be measured.

 Electrical systems and components can be tested
 Winding Insulation testing, continuity testing
 Battery test, relay, ground, etc.

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