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...
How D.C. to A.C. Inverters Work
Traditionally generation of electricity has involved rotating machines to produce alternating sinusoidal voltage and current (a.c. systems). With the development...
Photovoltaic (PV) Panel - Performance Modelling
In an earlier note on the site [Photovoltaic (PV) - Electrical Calculations], the theory of solar (PV) cell calculations was introduced. In particular...
Fire Resistant and Fire Retardant Cables
Fire resistant and fire retardant cable sheaths are design to resist combustion and limit the propagation of flames. Low smokes cables have a sheath designed...
Restricted Earth Fault Protection
The windings of many medium and small sized transformers are protected by restricted earth fault (REF) systems. The illustration shows the principal of...
What does N+1 mean?
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...
Dielectric loss in cables
Dielectrics (insulating materials for example) when subjected to a varying electric field, will have some energy loss. The varying electric field causes...
Cost Performance and Time
Often us engineers get so bogged down in equations, using software, producing drawings and writing specifications that this becomes the sole focus. ...
The ac resistance of conductors
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...
Surface Treatment – Ladders, Trays and Baskets
Steel ladders, trays and baskets form the backbone of cable containment systems. Often these items need some form of surface treatment to prevent corrosion...