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Hi everybody, I just stumbled across this thread tonight and it seems to be about the closest thing to what I was looking for so I figured it'd be worth dropping in here to say hi and see if someone can point me in the right direction - or, conversely, I can just post my stuff in here. I'm moving into the Energy Management field, oriented largely around Building Control Tech, energy auditing and sustainability, maintenance of large scale facilities equipment such as chillers and water heaters and compressors, solar arrays, digital control systems, etc, and I was curious if there's either a more appropriate thread someone might point me toward, or I might just post in here with some pics and chatter about the stuff I'm working with so far. Nothing's as big as some of the stuff I saw skimming through this thread however, I'm still spending a lot of time playing around in the facilities room of some really, really amazingly efficiently designed-and-operated buildings where some of the equipment is pushing 97% efficiency and such.. Even the ductless water heaters are pretty amazing when you get into the (I think they're called?) co-generation systems within a single piece of equipment where it leeches heat and cold from its own (essentially a distilling) processes to recover most of the energy used to continue to heat water, etc. Either way, cool thread.
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Nov 2, 2016 23:27
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Some of the water chiller/heat recovery systems in place near generation equipment is pretty slick. Cold as gently caress all winter? Spend the cash to get a huge as gently caress air/liquid heat exchange in the exhaust stream of the triple recuperated gas generation plant, and you suddenly have 50C exhaust and 90C hot water, more hot water than you could possibly need or want. A lot of the efficiency comes from asking very early in the planning process, we need to do X, which causes Y and Z, is there a way to recover something useful from Y or Z in such a way that it's cheaper than providing it using T?
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Nov 11, 2016 09:11
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It is interesting to see just how much energy you can get out before you hit the point where it is not worth while. The exhaust steam from the turbines where I work is so cold that you would be hard pressed to brew a cup of coffee with it. 25 C at 5 kPa absolute. Still has a shitload of energy in it though just not worth trying to extract more.
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Nov 11, 2016 17:53
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helno posted:It is interesting to see just how much energy you can get out before you hit the point where it is not worth while. That's hilariously low, do they have one of those new super low pressure 3rd stage turbines recovering that last bit of heat? poo poo, that's so low you couldn't even use it as a fuel preheat or feed water preheat effectively. How big is the exhaust manifold on that? With pressures that low I'm having a hard time visualizing how the exhaust system looks like to support the mass flow on a bigger generation plant. If you're someplace cold, you could use that exhaust heat to de-ice the sidewalks and roads, but holy poo poo would that be expensive to retrofit into place.
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Nov 11, 2016 23:10
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The condensers are enormous. Each turbine is rated at 875 mw so are still talking about a large amount of heat. We have a vey extensive feed water heating system. We pull extraction steam out of the turbine to control moisture levels and it is condensed to preheat feed water. The water hitting the boilers is around 125 C. In the winter we use extraction steam to heat the building. It hardly effects the units output at all. helno fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Nov 12, 2016 |
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Nov 12, 2016 04:22
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I was shown a 97% efficient water boiler a few weeks ago - it's basically a loving distiller but somehow because *magic physics and a whole fuckload of systems looping back and feeding off of each other* it reclaims a huge load of heat from the water it heated up, as it travels out the outflow pipes - and then uses that heat to heat up the next water, and also because it sucks out the heat from the air to heat that second "unit" of water, it creates super chilling and condensation, which it then wicks off and utilizes to put energy back into the same loving system  I mean after learning how integrated these highly sustainable systems work within a given system (the physics term) of the building, or neighborhood, etc, it's started to make me feel that building controls is where the first actual bio-tech integration a la scifi living structures and machines, is going to come from... Because the level of control and granularity and administration involved really is just begging for someone to figure out how to make that leap to a self-governing and regulating network of devices within a certain given purpose.. The level of monitoring and maintenance required to keep this stuff running at a level that you expect it to, it also truly phenomenal - which is why I feel there's so much room to get into the industry. I saw some stuff which looked basically like Visio had a baby with my old network monitoring software that showed the entire HVAC system for any given building on my campus yesterday when I was talking to the building controls advisor - he just whipped his laptop out of his bag and showed me how he had amazingly granular data on every sensor in every building on campus and how he could gently caress with them at will remotely to tweak efficiency or the control logic they were running on, etc. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Nov 12, 2016 |
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Nov 12, 2016 07:24
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coyo7e posted:I saw some stuff which looked basically like Visio had a baby with my old network monitoring software that showed the entire HVAC system for any given building on my campus yesterday when I was talking to the building controls advisor - I was going to start by saying that Visio is bad... but coyo7e posted:he just whipped his laptop out of his bag and showed me how he had amazingly granular data on every sensor in every building on campus and how he could gently caress with them at will remotely to tweak efficiency or the control logic they were running on, etc. Im going to just make a guess here and say the SecFuck level is pretty close to 100%. Even assuming it's under good auth processes I'm just picturing the level bad SCADA or whatever is running at the low level. God save us if you can actually look at it with a rudimentary public facing IP address. (Please let it not be this)
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Nov 13, 2016 07:29
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Is this the right place to ask for help regarding Electrician stuff? Ie I'm looking to wire something up (a Nest Thermostat) in my apartment, and it'd be great if someone with electrical experience could help me in that regard.
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Nov 16, 2016 16:31
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Loopoo posted:Is this the right place to ask for help regarding Electrician stuff? Ie I'm looking to wire something up (a Nest Thermostat) in my apartment, and it'd be great if someone with electrical experience could help me in that regard. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3090739
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Nov 16, 2016 18:30
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Loopoo posted:Is this the right place to ask for help regarding Electrician stuff? Ie I'm looking to wire something up (a Nest Thermostat) in my apartment, and it'd be great if someone with electrical experience could help me in that regard. First tip. Return it and buy an Ecobee3.
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Nov 16, 2016 18:53
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There is also the under-utilized HVAC thread.
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Nov 16, 2016 19:07
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helno posted:First tip. Chiming in to say I really like my Nest. P.S. OP their support phone number helped me with wiring, I think it's 24 hour and staffed in the U.S., couldn't have finished my somewhat complex install without their assistance.
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Nov 17, 2016 03:24
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angryrobots posted:There is also the under-utilized HVAC thread.
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Nov 23, 2016 07:04
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Hey guys, I've been reading the OSHA thread and all the discussion about multimeters on page 57/58 has me wondering. I bought a Fluke 115 true rms multimeter and have been using it for various things at work - 240, 440, that kind of thing. This is the right kind of multimeter, right? It says it's cat III rated for 600v, and I assume it's ok, but I'm paranoid now. The back cover says it has a F11A 1000V min interrupt rating 17000A fuse.
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Dec 7, 2016 07:59
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Depends on where you're using it: http://content.fluke.com/promotions/promo-dmm/0518-dmm-campaign/dmm/fluke_dmm-chfr/files/safetyguidelines.pdf
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Dec 7, 2016 08:18
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Mmmmm. It's on a ship. Power generated by 380v gensets. In theory there should never be anything higher than that, but those transients have me worried. I wonder if I shouldn't look at upgrading to a catIV at some point.
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Dec 7, 2016 08:29
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I'm really curious why you have to buy your own meter. The 87V is standard issue at my office.
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Dec 7, 2016 09:54
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eh. strictly speaking i can use the gear onboard, but i like to have my own tools. if i'm spending my own money, i want to be sure i'm getting the right item.
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Dec 7, 2016 09:57
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Wrong thread. Moved to correct thread.
PBCrunch fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Dec 14, 2016 |
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Dec 14, 2016 16:14
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Hi two finger, I work on boats too! I'm a "marine electrician" - I've got no union book, there's apparently no electrical code on boats built in the US beyond what the US coast guard demands. Everything I know I learned wiring houses and farms as a teenager. I feel like a fake electrician but I'm one of the most competent people at my work. Here's a little story: Boats have a bilge, which is the very bottom of the inside of the boat, above the keel, where condensation (and sometimes leaks!) accumulates (and is pumped out when it reaches a certain level). There is water in the bilge, at all times. The boat I'm working on now has a 480 -> 120 transformer in the engine room that is sitting below floor level, a foot above the bilge. It is very damp. The engineers have decided that declaring it a "backup transformer" and slapping a "do not use" sticker on it will somehow fix this problem. I assume this is a political solution; the transformer has never been successfully started in its current location.  Anyway my question is how the heck do I get a solid electrician job doing industrial work, where I can make serious dosh? Also how do I not die. Thanks in advance.
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Dec 18, 2016 03:41
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You can try looking for companies that hire out to the power industry for startups and outages? I know they're out there, but they're going to be rather local depending on the area.
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Dec 21, 2016 17:01
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As far as that bilge transformer goes you can buy an IP67 or IP68 or NEMA6 rated box to put it in. Those are rated for temporary submersion of the box. The conduit needs to be sealed and watertight and you also need to be very careful since the transformer could overheat easily in a watertight box.
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Dec 23, 2016 21:10
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Three-Phase posted:As far as that bilge transformer goes you can buy an IP67 or IP68 or NEMA6 rated box to put it in. Those are rated for temporary submersion of the box. It's on a ship so it needs to be approved by class, flag, and a whole whack of poo poo. Basically five or ten times the price of the regular stuff.
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Dec 26, 2016 21:49
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4160 rules errthing around me VAREAM get the current mega mega watts yall
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Dec 28, 2016 07:44
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nope
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Dec 28, 2016 07:48
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I have a question about industrial electricity. In a house, you know how turning a light on or off can make a burst of static on a tv? Once I held a lights witch in the middle neither on or off while watching a TV to make sustained static interference for maybe 10-30 seconds. While holding it I could hear bees buzzing in my ears and after I stopped my heart felt like it was racing extremely fast then gradually slowing over a few minutes. This was maybe 15 years ago in an older rental house with a switch that looked like this but white. My question is did the buzzing and racing heart really happen or did I imagine it?
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Dec 29, 2016 07:46
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you may have accidentally slipped into the Schroedinger dimension, i recommend consulting your local physicist
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Dec 29, 2016 07:55
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SMILLENNIALSMILLEN posted:Once I held a lights witch in the middle neither on or off while watching a TV Don’t do this. Switches like that are specially designed to minimise arcing. By intentionally making them arc, you are drastically shortening the switch’s lifespan, and potentially creating a fire hazard.
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Dec 29, 2016 08:13
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Also what decade was this in that your electrical system and your tv we're both lovely enough for that to happen? The last time I saw a tv experience interference from a local source, the antenna was ridiculously close to a ridiculously powerful shortwave transmitter.
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Dec 30, 2016 02:31
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Back when I was a kid I managed to wire up one of those eleventy-in-one electronics kits (like this https://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Electronic-Playground-Learning-Center/dp/B0035XSZDI except without the radio components) so when I pressed the key it caused significant audio interference and lines in the video on the TV across the hall from my bedroom. That's an unintentional emitter running on a few AA batteries. The original radio transmitters were effectively controlled arcs which splattered signal across the spectrum, so I have no trouble believing that a 120v arc could easily screw with a nearby TV.
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Dec 30, 2016 18:06
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Thanks for your help everybody. It was 15 years ago in an house that could have been decades old at that point, it was a crummy rental with a vhf tv.Platystemon posted:Don’t do this. Switches like that are specially designed to minimise arcing. By intentionally making them arc, you are drastically shortening the switch’s lifespan, and potentially creating a fire hazard. I haven't done it again since
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Dec 31, 2016 04:53
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Speaking of arcing, a friend of mine on IRC just linked some pictures... the title was "thieves aren't engineers".   WARNING: THERE ARE VERY DEAD PEOPLE IN THESE PICTURES - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. That's what happens when you try to steal a live high voltage line for scrap.http://imgur.com/a/AUeZr
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Jan 6, 2017 23:18
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My poor, flawed thought process: "I mean I've seen some horrible poo poo on the internet, how bad can-FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK NOPE CLOSE TAB CLOSE TAB CLOSE TAB"
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Jan 6, 2017 23:21
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Those are some aggressively dead dudes.
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Jan 7, 2017 07:58
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jesus loving christ that's nasty. 19 views. 18 other people have seen this. well,
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Jan 8, 2017 03:50
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I saw that series in a safety meeting. We had copper thieves attempt to steal the source load conductor from a set of voltage regulators in service. It did not go well but they escaped. Another time they cut down a transformer platform bank with a sawzall. I guess they thought the line was dead but it was not. They also got away.
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Jan 8, 2017 04:27
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kastein posted:Speaking of arcing, a friend of mine on IRC just linked some pictures... the title was "thieves aren't engineers". That's one way to keep warm.
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Jan 8, 2017 04:47
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kastein posted:Speaking of arcing, a friend of mine on IRC just linked some pictures... the title was "thieves aren't engineers". Crispy!
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Jan 8, 2017 17:26
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Mmm mmm good. You people need to spend more time on the internet.
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Jan 8, 2017 17:29
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kastein posted:Speaking of arcing, a friend of mine on IRC just linked some pictures... the title was "thieves aren't engineers". Shocking
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Jan 30, 2017 02:49
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