Concern for public safety and the increasing complexity of fixed electrical installations place extra responsibility on electrical test engineers. It is therefore important to have suitable test tools for carrying out the stringent tests imposed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC). IEC 60364 and its various associated […]
To understand the need for surge protection, it is important to understand how lightning causes damage. The sources of lightning damage are quite different, and we use different types of mitigation technique and equipment to protect different items. There are two areas of concern when evaluating a building or structure, namely the structure itself, and […]
Electrical power applications are changing rapidly which means the load on the electric network is changing: more harmonics and more risk of unbalance. This so-called “bad” power costs money and wastes energy. This article provides some basic theory to understand what is happening with today’s electrical applications. Apparent power To understand the relation between active […]
Industrial power quality (PQ) solutions generally consist of discrete devices to deal with individual problems. If more than one problem arises, more than one device is required. Voltage fluctuations and other disturbances are becoming more severe on the grid with the increasing amount of new load such as electric vehicle charging, automated machinery and embedded […]
IEC 60728-11 calls for earthing measures in addition to equipotential bonding and lightning equipotential bonding of cable networks. Nowadays, conventional satellite and terrestrial antennas are almost exclusively installed on the roofs of buildings. The IEC 60728-11 (EN 60728-1) standard therefore calls for earthing measures in addition to equipotential bonding and lightning equipotential bonding of the […]
The SABS explains the physics and testing procedures for solar water heaters. The concept of solar collection is not new at all; there are records of solar collection darting back to before the 1900s. One of the first solar water heater found was a tank painted black and mounted on a roof. Basically, white light […]
South Africa’s government, energy regulator and Eskom have often been criticised for obstructing the introduction of distributed, small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) which would help businesses to cut costs and ensure the stability of their power supply during load shedding. But, in fact, there are significant and far-sighted tax breaks put in place by National Treasury […]
How the use of IR windows saved a paper mill almost $18 000 and paid dividends as early as mid-way into the second inspection cycle. Management at a South Carolina paper mill in the USA wanted to expend their successful infrared inspection programme. However, regulatory requirements were causing them to re-think their strategy as inspection […]
The need for earthing and lightning protection at solar PV installations is known, but what about wind, and where is South Africa with this renewable option? In South Africa, most people tend to think of solar energy when they think of renewable energy sources, and certainly photovoltaic (PV) power is on the rise – the […]
