Monday, June 26, 2017

Amish Log Cabin Electric

 A client purchased a Amish 2 story 1500 square foot log cabin that was delivered to there location and raised the eyebrows of the local inspections required for the building, water, sewer and electric requirements.

The building inspector made the client 2 X 4 stud frame every exterior wall inside the home to allow the required trades to do there installations as well as exterior inside ceiling and insulate and dry wall finish all framing.

Consulting client's on current National Electric Code NEC requirements to pass a Home Owners Permit inspection with client preforming there own Labor using either onsite or online consulting options makes every project a mission in itself to say the least.

This Amish log cabin now 2 X 4 framed makes NMB cable the inside wiring harness pigged tailed true serious circurit connected the obvious choice for the exterior inside walls and flat metal Wire Mold true serious circurit connected products for log cabin interior walls.

 My personal preference is to not mix lighting with outlets on the same circurit breakers for the obvious reason if you trip a outlet than you are not knocking your lighting out also. Along with it makes great use of dedicated lighting grid circurit breakers to switch to alternative electrical energy. Also it is very easy to lower wattage by using LED lighting the old days are over that it takes 60 watts for a standard light bulb to operate when LED can do the same task at only 9 watts that is a 51 watt saving for each LED bulb installed.  This than makes battery banking and inverter energy operate an home lighting system free using solar and wind combined for charging along with other small 120 volts house hold loads like TV sets, computers, ect very easy and reliable.

This Client wants to go total electric with zero gas appliances. The following home wiring harness, electric 240 volt water heater X 1 (on-demand style)  heat is base board electric 240 volt X 4 with wall X 4 thermostat, window ac 120 volt X 3, X 1 sewer lift station & grinder 240 volt, electric range 240 volt, X 1 240 volt Water well pump And room for further circurit breaker space for the following X 1 240 volt Automatic Transfer Switch ATS to propane generator, X 1 240 volt ATS to Pure Sinewave Inverter, X 1 ATS to grid Main Breaker. Along with dedicated circurit breakers for following appliance loads microwave oven, refrigerator, upright freezer, dish washer, window ac units.

Needless to say the jigsaw puzzle here is to add load numbers to operate with the required wattage to make it safe, efficient and reliable In short it's all in the numbers added together than taking those daily operating numbers to make it happen fool proof. You can never go below NEC standards but you can always go above NEC standards with quality craftsmanship and quality materials. It never has been as easy than as it is today with microprocessor control devices to make electrical energy and than to switch that electrical energy also.This makes grid connections and off grid connections play nicely together in harmony.  

The old days are a bygone error of waiting 10 seconds for a auto-start generator to start after a grid loss and is over for those that know how to get it done. Today's off the shelf grid quality DC to AC pure sinewave inverters that are microprocessor controlled are so fast on switching from grid or various sources of alternative energy that clock or computer resets are not needed. . Using today's inverters is like adding brains to electrical energy it chooses where it wants to get the electrical power that it needs to operate the required wattage loads. This makes mixing all these different forms of electrical energy together and is done easily with Microgrid methods making each source a switching point.

Understanding the 2 major types of solar panels and there uses.

(1) DC that charge a battery or battery bank the best choice because it offers 24 hour storage but more costly due to multiple battery's linked together
(2) PV micro inverter that tie directly to single or 3 phase AC circurit breakers the draw back is it only generates electrical energy when the sun is shining. It is possible to battery bank this type of electrical energy also.

Understanding 3 basic wind system types

(1) many small wind turbines generate AC voltage to a rectifier that is used to covert the AC voltage to DC voltage that than is usually hooked to a charge controller
(2) DC that tie directly to to a charge controller
(3) large wind turbines that make primary high voltage that has to have transformers to step the voltage down for onsite usage.

From simple to complex D B Electric has each Clients electrical needs taken care of.

www.dbelectric.us 

Friday, June 9, 2017

Alternative Electrical Energy aka Microgrid




Doing the math to generate 120 240 volt AC voltage
In either single or 3 phase voltage options to any onsite wattage requirements and needs is as simple as adding the AC wattage load and designing a system to meet those needs. Solar panels come in either DC or AC voltage and wattage options. Solar PV micro inverter AC that tie directly to existing onsite electrical circurit breakers buss bars and Solar DC that tie into battery banking. Wind electrical energy comes in either AC or DC voltage and wattage options.

It may seem to be a mystery with alternative electrical energy and how to take different sources from solar, wind and any other source available and mix them all together to operate safely, efficient and reliable.
This makes free electrical energy possible to lower, stop or Net Metering to grid any onsite Net Zero AC wattage needs.

With advancements in off the shelf components that are grid quality, microprocessor controlled
and other options available from various vendors it is possible to mix all these different sources of electrical energy together and to make them operate safely, efficient and reliable. What is even better is that each source is a switching input for the required onsite AC or DC wattage needs. Made possible by stacking items as needed for higher AC amperage, wattage, voltage needs.

 DC to AC pure sine wave inverters that are grid quality microprocessor controlled and other options available from vendors that are so fast that there is zero lag time from these various switching sources, this makes clock or computer resets not necessary.  The old days are over from having to wait 10 seconds for a ATS automatic transfer switch to kick in an onsite fueled generator. Any onsite original generator that is ATS can be lowered or stopped with the advancement in DC battery banking options.  Battery banking also lowers or stops generator fuel consumption by storing electrical energy into AH amp hours for later use. Battery banking design can make it possible that days, weeks, or not at all charging maybe required.

With 43 years electrical experience and a retired master electrician in residential, commercial and industrial knowledge
It is possible to mix these different sources together such as Solar PV & DC, Wind AC & DC, Battery Banking, Grid and to make them all operate safely, efficient and reliable together. All with plug & play hot swap out cabling with PLC programmable logic controller and SCADA Supervisory control and data acquisition. This makes generating electrical electrical energy fool proof and logs errors, alarms, EOL end of life shelf life of electrical items and other options. It also gives switching control of onsite electrical energy from remote locations possible. 

Those that have grid electrical energy 
Can stop or Net Meter (where allowed) there original metering with many switching options. Mixing these different forms of electrical energy gives many switching options and even if grid power is lost from storms or other grid loss issues the onsite electrical energy is not lost from these grid issues. Safety and switching is done with ATS which isolates onsite grid so that no back feed to grid is possible from grid loss. But also monitors grid loss voltage for grid restart than again switching options are available like for example to stay off grid and consume the alternative electrical energy microgrid switching sources. 

Consulting clients options on grid tied and off grid electrical energy needs and issues.
Electrical energy is as simple as adding the correct wattage & voltage load numbers together and adding the inputs from solar and wind and any other onsite alternative electrical energy sources together. By producing onsite electrical energy you than are your own source of electrical energy aka microgrid. You than have design choices to Net Zero meaning no monthly electrical billings or Net Metering (where the onsite meter utility pays you monthly) where allowed. Either way alternative electrical energy is an investment can pay for it's self.



D B Electric
Website www.dbelectric.us
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/D-B-Electric-131032206946094/
Email www.elecwired@live.com

There is no reason ever not to have safe, reliable and efficient electrical energy 
From grid electric energy to alternative electric energy this retired master electrician can consult you on how to add the numbers and what off the shelf grid quality vendors and material sources are designed to operate from various vendors together into onsite microgrid electrical energy.