Cleaning up power

Dirty power is a big problem at commercial and industrial plants. You might be asking, what is dirty power? Dirty power is when your power factor is well off of 1, that is you have too much capacitive or inductive power. Businesses can save electricity and money by power factor correcting, or cleaning up the power. On this site http://www.phaseconverter.com/static-converter.html they have "solutions" to make your power factor close to 1, which is ideal. This could also be done by an experienced engineer that knows the power factor of the plant. Cleaning up power is often overlooked, but is very important.

Pager Repair, a blast from my past

I was searching for my roots the other day, and came back across http://www.refreq.com/ This site is a big source of the information I used when I worked on pagers and cellular phones at my old job at Pennsel Communications. This forum has been around longer than I worked there (before 1999) and gave me exceptional insight on items in repair that I really didn't know how to do. I look on there today and see the death of the pager industry and realize how much things change in such a short period of time.

Electronics Technology Club

The Electronics Technology Club (ETC) is having a meeting next Tuesday night at 5 PM. This club could be very important to future years of EEET majors. The ETC club was established in the Spring of 2002 by our class when we were freshman. All clubs take a certain amount of time to be considered official by the college, and need a constitution and by-laws. After 3 years, the club is finally deemed official by the college, and our constitution was approved. Now we would be eligible for funding from CGA, CGA vehicle use and other items that we could not use in the past for activities cause we were not an official club on campus. The meeting on Tuesday will help propel the club into the future, now that we have 4 full years of classes to fill out the ranks. Hopefully this will help the club and helping the club will help the major.

New Computers

Well, I had to bury my 1.33 GHZ Thunderbird recently. It was nearly 4 years old. Motherboard ailments took its life at such a young age. Actually most computers are pretty much worthless by the time they hit 4, so I shouldn't cry too much over spilled milk. However, I am going to cry over the fact that I need to buy some new pieces and build another computer up from stratch. I do have an XP 2500 AMD downstairs, but who can live with just one computer nowadays. Anyways, it looks like I will build an XP 3200 this time around (about double the speed or more of the old 1.33 GHZ...they use different speed techniques now) and the motherboard/processor/RAM combo is under 300 dollars. I think this is amazing, for getting quality products at this price. So the death of the 1.33 is sad, but the investment into a new machine is exciting.

Solar Energy

This is a follow up to what I spoke of in the previous entry concerning wind power. The only other renewable that we could use in Bloomsburg would be solar power. In Bloomsburg, we only receive about 50% of the available sunlight hours, so that will already cramp our efforts. On this site: http://www.sunlightsolar.com/solar_panels.htm
they have some solar panels, with voltage, amperage and wattage ratings.

A panel that is 31.1 by 62.7 inches big, will produce 160 watts. This will produce enough energy to light 4 standard lightbulbs.

So, a panel that big to light 4 lightbulbs, is it worth it?

Windmill for Electricity study

Renewable energy sources, they are a big topic with many. Common ones include geothermal (steam/heat) from the ground, waves, solar energy and wind. Being that Bloomsburg does not have Geothermal or waves, I only read alot about solar and wind. I have read many studies lately that say wind power is inefficient and will never become a primary source of power for our country. I could not agree more. Take a look at this website:
http://www.mnforsustain.org/windpower_schleede_g_wisconsin_study.htm
and it shows a study about wind farms in Wisconsin. These wind farms produce 0.25% of the total power that was created in the state of Wisconsin. Even with more wind farms, it is only expected to created up to 2% of the total electricity needed in the state. Wind is also not always there (people need electricity on calm days) and can also oversupply the system (stormy or windy days).

So in conclusion, I couldn't agree more, wind will always just be a supplemental energy source.

Project #3

So as I sit here and work on Project #3, I actually have learned alot about electricity savings that the campus could receive.

By the way, if you did not already know, I am writing my Project 3 on items that Bloomsburg University can do to save electricity and by saving electricity, also save money. When you start to stratch the surface and talk about replacing lighting, adding skylights, replacing older less efficient motors, or completing alternate heating and cooling, the savings cost in electricity will not even offset the cost of the improvements, even after a few years. This leads me to my conclusion of why we dont conserve electricity. When you can only save 10 dollars a year by using a different style lightbulb that cost 13 dollars more, you rahter use the cheaper lightbulb and use more power, it makes economical sense. However, it does not make environmental sense. In our society, money and ease talks.

A quicker way to make your turkey dinner

General Electric has pushed the bar up another notch. At this site: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Feed=BW&Date=20041109&ID=4082859&Symbol=US:GE
they speak of a new oven with Trivection technology. This oven uses thermal, convection and microwave technologies together to cook meals quicker. The claim is that this oven can cook a 22 pound turkey in 2 hours. This is less than half the time it takes with a conventional oven to cook a bird. However, cooking foods fast isnt the only goal, the primary goals are to cook food fast, and create the best tasting product. I would be interested to find out how good the items do taste.

I don't think I will see any of these ovens in my neck of the woods for awhile, as they start at $2399 for a standard wall oven.

When my major and my investments go together

I could probably post more blogs on Economics and investment than I could on Electronics. I am addicted to checking my stocks and other economic factors on a daily basis. The link that I will give: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20041108&ID=4080841&Symbol=US:LU
deals with Lucent Technologies (a stock that I currently own) using nanotechnology on items such as stain resistant clothing, fog reducing coatings for eyeglasses, better computer memory, and the list could be endless. Lucent is one of many companies that is making a large investment in nanotechnology to create future items that could be big moneymakers for the company. Items such as longer lasting batteries, lighter car tires that could hold air better, even nano-yeast beer (that could be produced cheaper) could be very close to being a reality for consumers.

I love new technology, and I love a profit on my stocks, so I say, keep investing in new technology and blow us away with it!

ListServs

I think a posting on my ListServs never did post in this blog. I joined a group in Yahoo Groups called the Electrical Engineering Club. There were alot of good posts in the beginning, but about 75% of the posts now deal with job offers, and meaningless questions. I am still happy with the group currently, because there is a large amount of action and talking going on in the group. There are also alot of college kids looking for class ideas, jobs, and other help. Of the meaningful articles I have read, there is good substance.

Project #3

For all of you in my Technical Writing class, I am going to speak a little about the project I will be working on for our Project #3. This deals with conservation of energy on campus. I am going to talk about being more efficient in all aspects, using natural items such as afternoon heat and light, and night-time cool air. I am also going to propose items such as windmill generators to create some of our own electricity. Through research, I want to create some solutions to lower the total energy cost for this University.

Review of former postings

Well I was about ready to make a posting over $60 a barrel oil, and another posting with would have proclaimed a change in our government, but for now, both look doubtful of happening. Oil has settled in below $50 a barrel and we still have a Republican majority in Congress and George W. Bush as President. I guess that everything is working out well for the time being. I will still hope for the day when I can talk about new technology (in my field) that will pull us off of the total need of oil and hold us back in the situation we are in currently.

Career Fair

Well, Tuesday October 19th, everyone in my scholarship group was required to go to the Career Fair held in the Kehr Union from 12-3PM. Being an engineering major at a college that basically pushes out education, business and nursing majors, I was leary of what would even be available for an Engineering major if anything. My thoughts were pretty much right, there were many options available for education, business and especially nursing. However, there was one place that did peak my interest. The company was Aerotek Inc. They are a professional staffing company that places many engineers to alot of large companies. Their website is http://www.aerotek.com/ They told me to contact them in the spring about planning for my co-op in the Summer/Fall. I definitely will.

High Tech Industry in Pennsylvania

With all the talk of "brain drain" and lack of high tech electronics jobs in Pennsylvania, I'm always on the lookout for jobs that I can work for after I graduate. I found this company http://www.surgex.com/ on the internet looking for engineers. Although this is not cutting edge technology, it will still be big business into the future. There will always be the need for AC power sources and protection of it.

Interesting Project

I was a little late in picking this up off of the IEEE website, but it is a proposal for future energy sources. If you go to http://www.energychallenge.org/ you can see their ideas that they just had a conference on last week. They also have linked to past energy challenges and fuel cell sites.

Hopefully in November if John Kerry is elected, we will start to have a broader focus on future energy sources and stop dragging our feet with our dependance on Middle East Oil. When our dependance on their oil is little to none, the world will instantly become a safer place.

My future goals include working with and hopefully designing items that use less energy, or finding better energy sources that we can produce in our country that are cost effective and manageable. In less than a month, we can start to realize these goals!