Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
(OP)
I am an electrical engineer moving from Australia (hot) to Canada (cold) in the near future and was wondering if there are any good reference materials for designing electrical installations (high voltage and low voltage) for sub-zero temperatures.
I wanted to read about the differences between designing in hot and cold climates before I went over.
I wanted to read about the differences between designing in hot and cold climates before I went over.






RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
I made a similar move, and so far haven't struggled too much with the designing for the cold part - it's the the change from working under AS/NZS and IEC standards to CSA and IEEE standards, along with all the associated quirks (MWG/kcmil cable sizes, using "ground" instead of "earth", etc) that takes more getting used to.
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
Your biggest worry might be driving on the other side of the road.
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
For electrical systems the big difference is driving a rod is the ground is not a ground. Permafrost is pretty much like glass, not much of a ground. Cnnect all your parts together with bare copper.
Teh University of Washington has a 3 day course in Cold Regions engineering. It or a comprable class is required rfor an Alaska PE. Good class but spendy.
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
If you are lucky enough to be heading for the Vancouver area, high humidity and mildew are more of a issue than the cold.
I rememer a spring in Vancouver inmy student days. On Saturday we had a choice of walking to the park to play tennis or riding public transit to Grouse mountain and skiing.
This recreational overlap may last several weeks.
Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
BJC
What does UACOE stand for?
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
There are manuals here
http://140.194.76.129/publications/armytm/
you can download. I don't see the ones for Arctic installations. I can't find the site for the Arctic stuff, there were about 6 manuals.
I'll keep looking.
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
Bill, Vancouver area, a Vancouver island, Victoria and Butchart!!!!
It's a crazy place!!!! and not cold,
Sorry again for off.
Best Regards.
Slava
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
If you are working in northern Canada, there are perdiodically threads on grounding in permafrost, that would be useful for you (keep in mind what waross said -- most of Canada is without permafrost!).
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=223520
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=219600
If you are working in the far north (ie: north of the 60th parallel), your biggest concerns about the differences between working where you are now and where you will be will likely become logistics. That being said, I doubt you will be doing work north of 60, since there are very few of us that actually enjoy -40 for weeks on end!
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
The site I referenced has some of the TMs as downloadabel.
I put TM 5-582-5 into google and got a downloadable copy.
TM 5-852-5 is "Arctic and Subarctic Utilities".
Not bad for free ( actually it's getting some of our tax money back.)
RE: Electrical Design in Sub Zero Temperatures
the page with everything.
http://www.army.mil/USAPA/eng/