Useful Motor Technical Information
Sometimes it’s useful to be able to quickly lookup a piece of technical information. This note is a collection of information related to motors, and in...
Power Factor
Power factor is the ratio between the real power (P in kW) and apparent power (S in kVA) drawn by an electrical load. The reactive power (Q in kVAr)...
Lighting Design - An Introduction
From the earliest times, humans have found ways to create light. Pre-historic peoples used natural materials (moss, grass, etc.) soaked in animal fat and...
What is LED?
Light Emitting Diodes (LED ) are increasing gaining favour in both the domestic and commercial sectors; due to their efficiency, sustainability and durability...
UPS Battery Sizing
Various techniques exist to enable the correct selection of batteries for UPS applications. The procedure described below is one of the more common. ...
Thomas Edison
American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He was the youngest of seven children and received little formal schooling...
Photovoltaic (PV) - Electrical Calculations
Photovoltaic (PV) cells (sometimes called solar cells) convert solar energy into electrical energy. Every year more and more PV systems are installed...
Smarter Electrical Distribution
The other day I came across an article in Technology Review on the development of a smart transformer. A professor at North Carolina State University is...
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...
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...