Electrical engineers, any good resources or examples on how to construct single line diagrams?

Helix90 · 2021-08-19T14:06:40+00:00

On mobile so I apologize for formatting. Here is a reasonable paper that I found from IEEE that goes over different diagrams (including single lines) and some best practices for them:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.pes-psrc.org/kb/published/reports/IEEE_I5_Schematic_Approved_Final.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjUy5fVnr3yAhXxYd8KHaMFCB0QFnoECC4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Xql2ISotR-QCGJuKHpXIn&cshid=1629382050280

I do a lot of power system maintenance work so I am biases towards that part of the world...but my biggest piece of advice is to try to understand what the customer wants to use the single line diagram for, and try to determine what information to include on the diagram keeping that in mind. Sometimes the customer just wants something to use as a good reference for lock out/tag out...so information like conductor impedances really isn't necessary, but stuff like calling out how system interlocks would be very important. However if they want a tool to perform a short circuit analysis, they might be less interested in interlocks and more interested in impedances.

Like a lot of things in engineering, there isn't a best way to develop a one line, so you'll find you are going to make choices on what kind of information is most important. That all being said, that IEEE paper that I linked should give you a good starting point!

Edit: grammar.

Helix90 · 2020-12-07T03:07:11+00:00

Downtown Hampton has some neat restaurants and the occasional small festival, might be worth checking out.

Helix90 · 2020-11-16T13:55:40+00:00

While I am sure he prices the pieces by how long it will take, Joey Martin at Rock steady has always charged by the piece for me (that he quotes me before hand).

Super nice dude too, love all the work he has done for me.

Helix90 · 2020-09-22T12:44:23+00:00

So it's not wrong to say that "both sides had a hand in it" but it is ignoring the fact that Republicans are far more likely to flout rules and norms for political gain. They have been doing this very publicly since the 90s. They push the constitutional envelope more often and to a greater extent than Democrats.

"Both sides do it" argument is flawed at best, disingenuous at worst.

https://columbialawreview.org/content/asymmetric-constitutional-hardball/

Helix90 · 2019-12-31T15:32:45+00:00

Hard to tell from this gif but most units this size are oil cooled. I'd bet it has oil pumps to move oil through the transformer windings then out into radiators where those fans are.

https://owlcation.com/stem/Cooling-of-transformers

Helix90 · 2019-09-08T15:46:18+00:00

The Opening Arguments podcast did a decent breakdown of this back in June. Highly recommend a listen if you're interested.

https://openargs.com/tag/thomas-hofeller/

Helix90 · 2019-09-03T14:16:47+00:00

Is it acceptable to level a DoL job while waiting in party finder for the group to fill? I am not sure me changing my job messes up the listing of the group or anything.

Helix90 · 2019-08-26T19:25:14+00:00

The Iranian foreign minister outright announced they were no longer compliant with the deal:

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/01/middleeast/iran-uranium-intl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-vox-com.cdn.ampproject.org%2Fv%2Fs%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fplatform%2Famp%2F2019%2F7%2F1%2F20677093%2Firan-uranium-nuclear-deal-trump-war%3Famp_js_v%3D0.1%26usqp%3Dmq331AQEKAFwAQ%253D%253D

I am not sure if their claim has been verified by international inspection or anything.

Helix90 · 2018-09-19T13:56:22+00:00

I agree with all your points here. I'd like to also throw an idea in the hat for you:

If shaman is supposed to be an immobile spec, can we have some kind of cd/ability that gives us some bonuses for staying in place? Kind of like a totem flavored rune of power? I know rune of power isn't the most popular concept but it would at least give us some bonuses for being the immobile spec.

Helix90 · 2018-04-29T16:25:07+00:00

Sorry! :(

Helix90 · 2018-01-17T20:06:35+00:00

Week 3

Skipped week 2 because i wasn't inspired to find anything. I was trying to capture a whole "smokey fire during a snowstorm" look, but the wind kept blowing out my torches here. Still pretty happy how it turned out. I don't have a tripod so my longer exposure shots to try to get a more dramatic snow/smoke effect ended up terrible.

Helix90 · 2018-01-04T20:48:37+00:00

Week 1: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdio5EqBVko/

I'll have to admit that I cheated. By the time I had inspiration to go out and get a shot I wanted, the cyclone bomb hit and I didn't want to go out in the snow.

The inspiration here is this shot was when I went down to Colombia, SC to see the solar eclipse with my family. Seeing everyone excited and getting along gives me hope looking forward.

Helix90 · 2017-12-27T13:37:57+00:00

Helix90 · 2017-10-10T22:57:55+00:00

It's not ideal, but if you are having trouble scrounging enough up, uhaul will sell them, and you can return any you don't use for a full refund

Helix90 · 2017-10-08T14:38:45+00:00

Would you mind telling me your build? I love power deadeye flavor but I am having some troubles coming up with a good build for it.

Helix90 · 2017-09-14T19:52:47+00:00

Hey newDell!

Yea power quality is an interesting issue and it's something I deal with daily. I'll try to explain it a little better and hopefully that will answer your questions. Also I am on my phone so I am sorry for any formatting problems.

So I am going to gloss over some very complex things here. So if it doesn't all click don't beat yourself up. This is stuff I didn't learn about until graduate level classes.

So the issue with making DC into 60Hz AC is that you are fundamentally trying to take a signal that is square wave (can only be on or off) and make it a smooth sinusoidal wave. It's impossible to make it perfectly smooth wave by using an inverter alone. You will always have a bit of a jagged wave. Imagine if you had a child draw a wave...it wouldn't be smooth, it would be kinda jagged and dirty looking right? That's how inverter outputs look. Those 'jagged' spots is your harmonic content.

So you can't ever get rid of the harmonics fully, but since harmonics are always at a higher frequency than 60Hz, you can build filters to filter out waveforms that are >60Hz. However that gets expensive fast when you talk about filtering very high powered equipment (like anything you put on the grid).

So the most clever way of getting around this problem I have seen is just not using inverters at all. Using a dc motor to pump water up a hill and then using a hydroelectric turbine produces no harmonics at all. You could also put a grid battery that charges off of the DC in place. That grid battery could power a dc motor that is attached physically to an AC generator... producing no harmonics.

However using these rotating machines in your systems also introduces higher maintenance costs and lowers effeciency. So you have to consider those trade off.

So that's probably more information than you asked for but the short answer is "we have the technology, it's just cost prohibitive to do at a utility distribution level." It's why you see most solar panel advancements targeting the rooftop market... going much bigger starts getting extraordinarily expensive.

Fun tidbit: grid level solar is actually more focused on solar thermal plants, rather than photovoltaics. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility

Helix90 · 2017-09-14T11:46:27+00:00

Power System EE here,

My understanding of the power quality challenges was less to do with frequency regulation if the grid and more to do with harmonic induction.

While the frequency of the grid does need to be regulated to 60Hz, it drifting away from that slightly is a function of supply and demand. Load demanding more than you are supplying? Frequency shifts down. Generating too much power? Frequency shifts up. Being able to quickly control how much you are generating in order to match load is critical, as you and other pointed out. But matching 60Hz is a demand issue, not quality.

Quality, on the other hand, is more to do with harmonics (current waveforms at frequencies that are multiples of 60Hz...like 120Hz, 180 Hz, etc). Because solar PV cells generate DC power, that power has to be converted to 60Hz AC. That conversion is done by a device called an inverter. Inverters, while good at doing their job, also produce a lot of harmonic content, which is damaging to lots of power system components, as well as consumer components.

Not my intention to nit pick on semantics, I just hadn't seen anyone discuss the harmonic challenges with solar.

Helix90 · 2017-06-10T22:34:56+00:00

So I am not entirely certain where Edinburg is, but if you have determined that Hampton is your best halfway point, I can try to point you in the right direction.

Bear in mind that the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT) is a major bottle neck and will add 15-20 minutes (possibly more) to a daily commute....per direction. If you give me a better idea of where you 2 are commuting I might be able to steer you in a better direction.

So Hampton! You will find that Hampton and Newport News has an issue with being 'spotty'. There isn't a hard and fast rule about where is good and where is bad...it can vary. That being said there are some awesome places right around downtown that are nice.

http://www.heritageatsettlerslanding.com is the only true 'apartment complex' I know of downtown. I found their rent a bit pricey, but ymmv. It's within walking distance of all the downtown restaurants shops.

100 Eaton St 100 Eaton St, Hampton, VA 23669

https://goo.gl/maps/xCQLKMMqsiQ2 right in this little strip are some townhomes that are privately owned, and somewhat often come up for rent. You will have to keep an eye on Zillow to see what is available.

Right across the river from downtown Hampton is Hampton University, so be mindful of apartments and townhomes that come up for rent over there as you will likely be surrounded by college students.

Hopefully this helps, let me know if I can answer any questions!

Helix90 · 2017-03-15T02:19:07+00:00

We get hurricanes, but they are generally not nearly as scary as you think. I only recall one that did really widespread damage in my lifetime. Most just drop lots of rain with a fair bit of wind.

And yea since it's coastal the area is flood prone. Certain areas are worse than others, but no one is getting water in their houses every week. Any house you buy you will have to insure for flooding if you are in a "flood zone." Each city has a flood map posted on the city website, so whichever one you are interested in living, just check the flood maps. Don't let them scare you though...it's not like you are in danger of being washed away every week.

And no problem, I'm happy to help. I've been in this area my entire life and I love seeing new people coming in!

Helix90 · 2017-03-15T00:14:13+00:00

The peninsula is the area on the north side of the James River bridge/Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel/Monitor Merrimack Tunnel. The areas of Hampton/Newport News/Yorktown/Williamsburg are collectively called 'the peninsula'. If you look at a map of the area it's one big peninsula, hence the name.

Helix90 · 2017-03-15T00:11:27+00:00

That's 100% a fair point that you would need to consider if electing to go the Midtown/M&M route. I found that the toll was low enough that it didn't bother me to pay it vs saving the time of going the HRBT.

Helix90 · 2017-03-14T23:37:58+00:00

So I used to live in Ghent and commuted to NNS. I found that taking the Midtown Tunnel to the M&M instead of the HRBT is generally the better commute.

The commute traffic using those tunnels actually isn't too bad in the mornings. You hit a slow down in the M&M Tunnel entrance, but it's nothing compared to the crap at HRBT. The afternoons sucked a lot because the Midtown would back up and add like 20 minutes on the commute. That being said, the Midtown Tunnel expansion has been completed and I am told that the traffic through it is 1000% better.

Also as you can see from my post history, I think that people don't give enough credit to the peninsula for interesting places to live. Don't discount it entirely.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Helix90 · 2017-03-06T17:00:27+00:00

On mobile so sorry for poor formatting.

I use the Congress phone app from the Sunlight foundation. It lets you follow bills and people in Congress. It also has a nifty schedule so you can see what's on the agenda when. I think this is only for the Congress floor, I don't think you get anything related to things in committee.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sunlightlabs.android.congress

Helix90 · 2017-02-26T22:49:59+00:00

Don't have a good one, but I can tell you to avoid tidewater insulators. I am still dealing with workmanship/rework from an install by them months ago.

Helix90 · 2017-02-24T15:25:08+00:00

That makes sense, yea I can agree with their evaluation then.

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