Nikola Tesla
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...
IEC Document Designation
Often document control is dictated by project requirements, for example a particular organisation may have an existing numbering system. Existing company...
Back to basics - the Watt (or kW)
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...
Paternoster Lifts
These lifts were first built in 1884 by J. E. Hall and called a paternoster ("Our Father", the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin) due to its...
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...
Voltage Levels to IEC 60038
The standard aims to consolidate AC and traction voltages within the industry and defines the following bands:
band 1 - A.C. systems 100 V to 1...
Photovoltaic (PV) - Utility Power Grid Interface
Photovoltaic (PV) systems are typically more efficient when connected in parallel with a main power gird. During periods when the PV system generates energy...
Why is electricity so hard to understand?
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...
Fault Calculation - Per Unit System
Per unit fault calculations is a method whereby system impedances and quantities are normalised across different voltage levels to a common base. By removing...
8 Motor parts and common faults
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...