Loading Effect of Instruments

D. Rama (I Year M. Tech. CI)

CB. EN. P2CIN17006
Contents
• What is loading Effect?
• Loading effect in Voltmeter
• Loading Effect in Ammeter
 What is loading effect?
• The incapability of the instrument to measure, record or
control the input signal in undistorted form is called loading
effect.
• Under practical conditions, when an instrument of lower
sensitivity is used with a heavier load, it will have some error in
the measurement .
• Two types – Inter element loading, Process loading
Loading effect in Voltmeter
• Ideally the resistance of a Voltmeter is infinite so that
voltmeter does not alter circuit current.
• When the resistance of the Voltmeter is less than the circuit
resistance, it will act as a shunt path to current therefore the
voltage drop across the circuit resistance will be less. This
effect is known as Loading Effect in Voltmeter.
• It will affect the accuracy of the Voltmeter reading.
Calculate the voltage across 50kΩ Resistor using Voltmeters A
and B with sensitivity 1000 Ω /V and 20,000 Ω /V respectively.

Voltage drop across

• ቅ = 50 V (True Value)
50KΩ Resistor

• Case 1: Using Voltmeter A

Voltage drop across
ൠ = 30 V
Req Resistor

• Case 2: Using Voltmeter B

Voltage drop across
ൠ = 48.37 V
Req Resistor
Loading Effect in Ammeters
• When an ammeter is placed into the circuit to measure the current I,
we assume it will indicate the correct current.
• This would be a correct assumption if the ammeter had an internal
resistance of zero ohms.
• However, since all ammeters have some internal resistance, there will
always be some loading effect on the circuit.
(a) Current across resistors without ammeter (b) Current across 3Ω resistor using ammeter

(c) Current across 1.5Ω resistor using ammeter

Loading effect in Potentiometer
1
𝑁 𝑥 = 𝐸𝑡ℎ − 𝑉𝐿 = 𝑉𝑠 𝑥 1 − 𝑅𝑝
𝑥 1−𝑥 +1
𝑅𝐿
Loading effect in Potentiometer
1
𝑁 𝑥 = 𝐸𝑡ℎ − 𝑉𝐿 = 𝑉𝑠 𝑥 1 − 𝑅𝑝
𝑥 1−𝑥 +1
𝑅𝐿