Tag Archives: November

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Outdoor Deicing & Snow Melting

Electrical Safety

“Snow at Argenteuil” | Claude Monet (1875)

Today our focus turns to outdoor electric deicing and snow melting wiring systems identified as suitable for the environment and installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.  They work silently to keep snow load from caving in roofs and icicles falling from gutters onto pedestrian pathways.

While the voltage and ampere requirement of the product itself is a known characteristic, the characteristic 0f the wiring pathway — voltage, ampere, grounding, short circuit, disconnect and control — is relatively more complicated and worthy of our attention.   Articles 426-427 of the National Electrical Code is the relevant part of the NEC

Free Access 2023 National Electrical Code

Insight into the ideas running through technical committee deliberations is provided by a review of Panel 17 transcripts:

2023 NEC Panel 17 Public Input Report (633 pages)

2023 NEC Panel 17 Public Comment Report (190 pages)

We hold Articles 427 in the middle of our priority ranking for the 2023 NEC.   We find that the more difficult issues for this technology is the determination of which trade specifies these systems — architectural, electrical, or mechanical; covered in previous posts.   Instead, most of our time will be spent getting IEEE consensus products in step with it, specifically ANSI/IEEE 515 and IEEE 844/CSA 293.

Comments on the Second Draft of the 2026 NEC will be received until April 18th.

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We collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facility Committee which meets online 4 times per month in European and American time zones.  Since a great deal of the technical basis for the NEC originates with the IEEE we will also collaborate with IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 18 whose members are charged by the IEEE Standards Association to coordinate NFPA and IEEE consensus products.

Issue: [19-151]

Category: Electrical, Energy

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Kane Howard, Jose Meijer


LEARN MORE:

IEEE Standard for the Testing, Design, Installation, and Maintenance of Electrical Resistance Heat Tracing for Commercial Applications

844.2/CSA C293.2-2017 – IEEE/CSA Standard for Skin Effect Trace Heating of Pipelines, Vessels, Equipment, and Structures–Application Guide for Design, Installation, Testing, Commissioning, and Maintenance

 

Dahlgren Hall & “Seasoned” Coffee Mug Stories

Named after Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren (1809-1870) an influential figure in the development of naval ordnance during the United States Civil War.  It  served as an armory and drill hall for midshipmen. Its open space was ideal for indoor drills and military exercises.

The hall was constructed between 1899 and 1903. Its design was overseen by Ernest Flagg, a prominent architect who designed several buildings at the Naval Academy.  Today it houses the Drydock Restaurant, a gathering place for midshipmen, faculty, and visitors.

“How to Achieve the Ultimate Filthy Navy Coffee Mug”

Military

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act

ROTC

Meals-Ready-to-Eat

“Eternal Father, Strong to Save”

Industrial electroheating and electromagnetic processing

The global standards for heat tracing systems are developed by IEC Technical Committee 27.  The scope of work for this committee is reproduced below:

Standardization in the field of industrial equipment and installations intended for electroheating, electromagnetic processing of materials and electroheat based treatment technologies Note: The scope of interest covers industrial installations with the use of the following equipment: – equipment for direct and indirect resistance heating; – equipment for electric resistance trace heating; – equipment for induction heating; – equipment using the effect of EM forces on materials; – equipment for arc heating, including submerged arc heating; – equipment for electroslag remelting; – equipment for plasma heating; – equipment for microwave heating; – equipment for dielectric heating; – equipment for electron beam heating; – equipment for laser heating; – equipment for infrared radiation heating. The list presents typical examples of equipment and its applications and is not exhaustive.

CLICK HERE for the link to the TC 27 Strategic Business Plan

Titles in this committee’s bibliography appears to be stable.   As with all IEC titles, they are relatively narrow in scope compared with the titles promulgated by most US standards developing organizations.  Our interest lies primarily in the application of this technology within and around education community buildings.

While heat tracing generally goes un-noticed it is an essential part of cold weather safety.  It is wise to keep pace with its evolution with innovation in materials and controls with the lead.

We maintain this committee’s work on the standing agenda of our seasonal Snow & Ice colloquia; along with US standards developed by UL, IEEE, NEMA, NFPA, ICC, ASHRAE and a few others.  We also collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee on this topic.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

 

Issue [18-332]

Category: Electrical

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Lorne Clark, Jim Harvey

 

Horologiorum

“Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May” John Herrick | John William Waterhouse

“The Sound of Noon” on the Charlottesville Campus

University of New Hampshire

Westminster Chimes at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

University of Michigan

Hayes Clock Tower

Ars Sonora Bell Tower

Western University Ontario

Trinity College

Mississippi State University

南洋華僑中學

Shelton State Community College Alabama

Winona State University

Oklahoma City Community College

University of Illinois

Bucknell University Pennsylvania

St. Francis Xavier College Missouri

University of Mississippi

University of North Dakota

University of Montana

Gardner-Webb University North Carolina

University of California Berkeley

Auburn University Alabama

 

Indiana University

Sam Houston State University Texas

Otago University New Zealand

Hillsdale College Michigan


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ISO 8601:2004 Data elements and interchange formats — Information interchange — Representation of dates and times

National Institute of Science & Technology: Time and Frequency

National Institute of Science & Technology: Current Reliability of the WWVB Time Code

NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm & Signaling Code Chapter 23: Protected Premises Alarm and Signaling Systems

Tyme

“Tyme” was used in Middle English and earlier forms of the language, and it was commonly found in historical texts, poetry, and manuscripts of that time. It was used to refer to the passage of time, an era, or a specific moment in history.

“Steam alarm clock with a polyphonic whistle” 2004 Jacek Yerka

Today at 16:00 UTC we refresh our understanding of the technical standards for the timing-systems that maintain the temporal framework for daily life in education communities.  The campus clock continues as a monument of beauty and structure even though digitization of everything has rendered the central community clock redundant.

Most leading practice discovery (and innovation) is happening with the Network Time Protocols (NTP) that synchronize the time stamps of widely separated data centers.  In operation since before 1985, NTP is one of the oldest Internet protocols in current use and underlies the Internet of Things build out.  NTP is particularly important in maintaining accurate time stamps for safety system coordination and for time stamps on email log messages.

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Time

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National Institute of Standards and Technology: What is Time?

Sapienza University of Rome: Clock Synchronization

IEEE Standard 1588: Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems

National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code

Athletics

Fully automatic time (Sport)

Permanent RFID Timing System in a Track and Field Athletic Stadium for Training and Analysing Purposes

USA Swimming: Time Standards

Date & Time: Representations For Information Interchange

“A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery” | Joseph Wright (1766)

Most nations follow the day/month/year format (07/01/19 for January 7, 2019, for example), but the United States adheres to its own format of month/day/year (1/7/19 or 1/7/2019).   The potential for misinterpreting dates across national boundaries is the logic for ISO 8601:2019 – Data Elements And Interchange Formats – Information Interchange – Representation Of Dates And Times, the ISO format for dates represents year, month, and day from the largest unit to the smallest, most specific unit of time.  The ISO date format is the date format used in SQL and is the default date setting on many computers.

ISO 8601-1:2019 Date And Time – Representations For Information Interchange – Part 1: Basic Rules

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR INTERACTIVE MAP


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Time and Date

How the ISO Date Format Tells Today

ISO Date Format

Date and time formats used in HTML

Making Greenwich the centre of the world

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