Thomas Edison
American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He was the youngest of seven children and received little formal schooling...
UPS Sizing - Rules of Thumb
It wasn't so long ago I was telling someone that I don't use rules of thumb as most things are easily calculated anyhow. As it turns out I last week...
Magicians of Engineering
The other day I was reading 'Night of the New Magicians' by Mary Pope Osborn with my son. The story is about a young boy and girl who travel back in time...
Lightning Protection and Earth Electrode Resistance
Most installations involve some form of lightning protection system which is connected to an earth electrode. The function of the earth electrode is to...
Understanding LV Circuit Breaker Fault Ratings
I think this post is going to be helpful to several of our readers. While the IEC low voltage circuit breaker Standard [IEC 60947-2, Low voltage switchgear...
Aluminium Windings - Dry Type Transformers
The other day I was talking to a colleague who is a building services consultant. Despite regularly specifying dry-type/cast resin transformers he was...
Smarter Electrical Distribution
The other day I came across an article in Technology Review on the development of a smart transformer. A professor at North Carolina State University is...
Operational Amplifier
The fundamental component of any analogue computer is the operational amplifier, or op amp. An operational amplifier (often called an op-amp,) is a high...
Batteries
A battery consists of one or more cells, each of which use stored chemical energy to produce electrical energy, There are many types of cells and these...
Occam's Razor
I was reminded of Occam's Razor while reading a book. It's quite a simple principal of logic which has stood the test of time and is accepted as central...