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Recent content by stephenw22

  1. stephenw22

    Salary for an Electrical engineer

    I don't know about Texas, but the provincial engineering associations in Canada typically complete salary surveys of their membership every 1-2 years. Have you checked with the local association?
  2. stephenw22

    Can electrical cabinet be placed on back and open upward?

    There's so much information missing from your question, it makes it very difficult to give a good answer. What's in the cabinet? How big is the cabinet? What is the environment like around the cabinet? I agree that it's probably okay (technically) to do it, but it could also be a huge...
  3. stephenw22

    Class I Div II Area and 24VDC

    As long as the terminal strip is only for a junction box, and the terminal blocks aren't fused or have any circuitry in them, then the installation is fine. A junction is non-arcing, so it's fine in a Cl.1, Div.2 area inside a NEMA 4 enclosure. If the terminal blocks have components in them...
  4. stephenw22

    RTD for MV motor

    We had several RTDs fail on a 5 year old, 6000HP 13.8kV motor at our site. The manufacturer came and installed 6 additional RTDs on the end of the windings. The RTDs and leads were epoxied to the windings. Their thermal modelling showed that the temperature difference between the embedded...
  5. stephenw22

    Explosion Proof Enclosure

    Explosion-proof enclosures need to be certified to be used in a particular environment. It would be far easier (and cheaper) to buy a pre-manufactured and certified enclosure than to design and certify your own.
  6. stephenw22

    arc flash barrier

    Depending on what your high-side switchgear is, you could install an arc flash relay. I've heard them called Vamp relays, but I think that's just a brand name. Anyways, the worker wears a photosensor that is wired back to the switchgear and trips it if an arc occurs. It may significantly...
  7. stephenw22

    Powersave 1200

    A better thing to do would be to look at the electrical system and see what is causing the demand (kVA) charges, and exactly how the billing is done (average or peak demand). For example, if most of the customer's kVA comes from a constant load, and the PF is very steady, a passive capacitor...
  8. stephenw22

    CFL versus LED lights

    I'm still a big fan of regular incandescents over either CFL or LED lighting. However, CFL lighting seems to still have a lead over LED lighting for overall efficiency. That said, I think efficiency is overrated, at least for the northern climate I live in. During the summer, when my house...
  9. stephenw22

    Motor control cable lenght

    I took a quick look at a few drawings, and the longest 120VAC control cable run we have (that I could find) is just over 1700ft. It's a 5C#14 TECK cable, and it's been in service for about 20 years now without any problems. At that distance though, I'd be really tempted to try and use DC...
  10. stephenw22

    Boiling Transformer

    You can always take an oil sample and ship it to a lab for analysis. Depending on how much you are willing to pay, you can get results very quickly.
  11. stephenw22

    Can You Top This? Extremes in Non-Ethical Behavior

    A local university had a scandal a few years ago when one of the engineering professors at the university was found to be using someone else's diploma. There was a huge contraversy about all of the students she had taught, and whether they should have the course invalidated and struck from...
  12. stephenw22

    Large AC Squirrel-Cage Induction Motor Repair Versus Repalce

    Just because a motor is 40-50 years old doesn't really mean anything. If everything is still in good shape, there's no reason to think it won't last another 40-50 years. We have some motors on our site that have been running well for around the same length of time, without anything but regular...
  13. stephenw22

    compact fluorescent light bulb reliability

    The only place we've had problems with CFLs is in high-humidity areas (bathrooms with showers, some mechanical rooms, etc.) We've switched back to incandescents in these areas.
  14. stephenw22

    NFPA Arc Flash & FPB

    We don't do any calculations for equipment under 480V at our site. We just use the NFPA 70E recommendations. As far as time limits go, I agree that it should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Many of the "dangerous" locations on our site are at the ends of long 480V and 600V runs...
  15. stephenw22

    Different workload between business parners

    I would think that the best thing to do is to sit down with the partner and let them know what you feel. Maybe your partner takes work home and does extra work that you don't see. If things aren't balanced or fair, the two of you should be able to work something out that will make it fair -...
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