Fundamental electrical engineering concepts and theory
If you want to check a circuit is dead (not live), you should always use the three point method. First check a known live circuit, then check the dead circuit and finally recheck the live circuit. Carry... read more..
If you are working on a large plan, get the real coordinates [latitude, longitude] for two or more points and add them to the drawing. That way you can always work out the scale and dimensions.
Electrical engineering has a multitude of laws and theorems. It is fair to say the Ohm's Law is one of the more widely known; it not the most known. Developed in 1827 by Georg Ohm the law defines the re... read more..
The term 'N+1' relates to redundancy and simply means that if you required 'N' items of equipment for something to work, you would have one additional spare item. If any one item of equipment breaks dow... read more..
A lot of our members work in countries where PPE (personal protective equipment) is regulated or they work for companies/organizations which take employee safety seriously. Unfortunately, there are plac... read more..
When thinking about watts (W) or kilowatt (kW = 1000 W) it can be useful too keep in mind the fundamental ideas behind the unit. Watt is not a pure electrical or mechanical unit, but is a measure of the... read more..
It's been a busy few months on different projects or busy couple of decades depending on how I look at it. I can say that on the odd (frequent) occasion when trying to explain something (i.e. electricit... read more..
Battery powered cars are a hot topic and widely debated. The pros, cons, issues and time frames can be talked about endlessly. An article by the Telegraph looks at some of the issues in an A to Z format... read more..
I received this question by email a few weeks. First thoughts was that it is a product of the mathematics of rotating a straight conductor in a magnetic field. While I guess this is the primary issue... read more..
ABB has produced a range of technical guides that offer concise explanations of the major technologies and technical issues in low voltage AC drives. The technical guides cover subjects such as th... read more..
Nikola Tesla was born exactly at midnight on July 10, 1856 in the tiny village of Smiljan, Lika in Croatia. In his late teens, Tesla left the village to pursue a career in electrical engineering. He sta... read more..
Using software in our work is essential for most of us and we are becoming even more dependant on it's use. While software is a great asset, many times using it can be more problematic ... read more..
Capacitors are widely used in electrical engineering for functions such as energy storage, power factor correction, voltage compensation and many others...
This post is quick introduction and overview to different railway electrification voltages used in answer to a question sent in via email. While there...
Lamps are the essential part of any luminaire. These are the light generating components. Since the advent of electrical lighting in the middle of the...
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...
Reading is a bit of a hobby of mine and I"ve done a few off-topic posts in the past on this. Rather than continue doing the occasional post I thought ...
The calculation of current in a three phase system has been brought up on our site feedback and is a discussion I seem to get involved in every now and...
Power cables can basically be classified into earthed and unearthed cables, where earthed and unearthed refer to the application for which the cable is...
IEC 60947 is the circuit breaker standard and covers the marking of breakers in detail. Any manufacturer following this standard should comply with the...
Problems on achieving maximum voltage drop within an installation come up often. Depending where you live, local regulations will have different limits...
When selecting a cable, the performance of the cable under fault conditions is an important consideration. It is important that calculations be carried...
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