Electrical and related buildings technology
Straight forward list of some common motor faults. If I have missed any other common faults, please take a bit of time to add them in as a comment below. read more..
Request to look at induction motor starting time have come up a few times on the site. Hopefully in this post, I give you guys some idea on how to calculate this. Failing that, hopefully at least som... read more..
Problems on achieving maximum voltage drop within an installation come up often. Depending where you live, local regulations will have different limits on maximum allowable voltage drop, however the int... read more..
A recurring theme on our forums is cable sizing. Now many installations are unique and require special consideration. However, a lot of the time things are just repeated. When looking at low voltage pow... read more..
Estimating maximum demand is a topic frequently discussed. Working out how much power to allow for a building can be very subjective . Allowing too much power results in additional equipment, increased ... read more..
Three phase systems are derived from three separate windings, either connected in delta or star (wye). Each winding can be treated separately, leading to the idea that the load in each winding can be vi... read more..
The inventor of the first visible light-emitting diode makes history again this year as it begins to show customers a 40-watt replacement GE Energy Smart® LED bulb available later this year or early... read more..
IEC 62305 'Protection against lightning' requires a risk assessment be carried out to determine the characteristics of any lightning protection system to be installed. There is a lot of hype about about... read more..
I've been considering a blog on the 110 or 230 Volt issue for a while. While browsing the Internet I came across a great summary by Borat over at engineering.com. He ... read more..
The new standard IEC 61439 replaces the old 60439. Compared to the old standard, the new 61439 is a more clearly defined and takes into account the assembly of pre-tested designs. .
Some key... read more..
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 I ended up using what can only be describ... read more..
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 again. While some colleagues prefer to remember... 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...
Motor starting and its associated problems are well-known to many people who have worked on large industrial processes. However, these things are, of course...
Control theory looks at how systems work and are controlled from a mathematical view. This note gives a brief introduction to some of the concepts – 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...
Exposure to time varying magnetic fields, from power frequencies to the gigahertz range can have harmful consequences. A lot of research has been conducted...
Carrying out a protection system discrimination study is critical to ensure the correct functioning of the electrical system in the event of faults. ...
When current flows within a wire, a magnetic field is created. The potion of this magnetic field perpendicular to the wire is called the magnetic flux...
Resistors are electronic components that oppose the flow of current. Manufactured in various types and ranges they have a wide application to electronics...
The windings of many medium and small sized transformers are protected by restricted earth fault (REF) systems. The illustration shows the principal of...
In a previous article I looked at the dc resistance of conductors and in this article we turn our attention to ac resistance. If you have not read the...
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