From the monthly archives: April 2012

We are pleased to present below all posts archived in 'April 2012'. If you still can't find what you are looking for, try using the search box.

Arc Flash Calculations

By Steven McFadyen on 3/22/2012 6:14 AM

Working in the vicinity of electrical equipment poses an hazard. In addition to electric shock hazard, fault currents passing through air causes Arc Flash. To protect people a risk analysis on the ar... read more..


Windows Live Writer and myElectrical

By Steven McFadyen on 3/15/2012 7:27 AM

When making adding a Note to our site we have a great online WYSIWYG editor and things are pretty simple.  However, if you prefer you can write, manage and publish your posts using any external ... read more..


Tech Topics/Application Notes - Siemens

By Steven McFadyen on 3/13/2012 6:21 AM

There are a lot of interesting two page type notes on various medium voltage topics – switchgear, circuit breakers, bus systems etc. It is on the Siemens US site, so many of he note are IEEE/ANSI ... read more..


Hazardous Areas – IEC and NEC/CEC Comparison

By Steven McFadyen on 3/9/2012 11:39 AM

Depending where in the world you work, you are likely following one of two standards

  • International Electrotechnical Commissio... read more..


IEC 61439 Verification Methods

By Steven McFadyen on 3/3/2012 3:33 PM

The (relatively new) switchgear and control gear standard, IEC 61439 'Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies' has three methods which can be used to verify the characteristics of an assemb... read more..


Lead Acid Batteries

By Steven McFadyen on 3/3/2012 12:57 PM

Lead acid batteries are cost effect and reliable, making them suitable for many applications.This note examines topics of interest associated with the use of these batteriesLead acid batteries are co... read more..


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Lightning Risk Assessment (IEC 62305)

IEC 62305 'Protection against lightning' requires a risk assessment be carried out to determine the characteristics of any lightning protection system...

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...

Laplace Transform

Laplace transforms and their inverse are a mathematical technique which allows us to solve differential equations, by primarily using algebraic methods...

Arc Flash Calculations

Working in the vicinity of electrical equipment poses an hazard. In addition to electric shock hazard, fault currents passing through air causes Arc Flash...

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering is a field that covers a wide variety of sub-fields, including electricity and electronics. It is a field that goes back to the...

Star-Delta Motor Starting - Performance

Many questions sent in to the site are in connection with motor starting and in particular star-delta.  For all but the simplest application, there is...

Variable Frequency Drive

Variable frequency drives are widely used to control the speed of ac motors.  This note looks at the mechanisms which enable drive units to control the...

Differential protection, the good old days

This morning I was explaining how differential protection works to a junior engineer. To give him something to read I opened up the NPAG (Network Protection...

Skin Tapping Input

Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets. A new technology created by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon ...

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...

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