Electrical Engineering and the Environment

Dear,

If you understand

Dust

Humidity

Temperature

Altitude

You may have won doctorate in electrical engineering. Ultimately, all we learn is enviroment ... only.... adjusting the equipments , their ratings to suit an environment!

I consider the environment to be the enemy.

As an electrical designer, I don't think you will have too many obvious opportunities to consider the environment, so you will have to look for them.

• Any time you have an opportunity to make a design that saves energy, you can have an impact on the environment.
• Similarly, if you can find a way to substitute a less environmentally costly product, you can have an impact. If the substitution costs your employer more in terms of dollars or shortened life, you have an obligation to discuss it with him / her.
• I occasionally had to route power lines to new mine sites. There are probably more and less environmentally costly routes, maybe some with little or no difference in $ costs (and some with additional costs that should be discussed with your employer)
• Along similar lines, if you need ground beds for a substation, you might find more or less environmentally costly locations or methods
• Maybe you'll have chances to influence things like where a fan, hoist, or water pump are located--even though those locations aren't directly you're bailiwick. (And, hence, you need to be diplomatic and circumspect.) Perhaps you can find a location for one of those that minimizes electrical power usage, materials usage, and environmental impact.
• Hmm, maybe you're an electrical designer for an equipment manufacturer--well, I'd say back to energy savings and environmentally friendly materials (that might be materials with less environmental first cost, or easier to recycle, or ???)
  
• ??? Keep your eyes open
  

Being that the potential divergences have already arisen, maybe you could enlighten us on the purpose of your question. Did you mean "environment" as in ecology? or "environment" as in the ambient conditions in which equipment must operate?

If the later, what kind of equipment? What kind of environment?

And in the latter, my previous post would not be off topic . In the case of ambient conditions, Environment is the enemy, and must be kept out of your components.

I demand an offset off topic vote!

No Soup for you!

There ya go.

LOL... I wasn't serious ya know, but thanks anyhoo.

Me too. My bad. I put stuff into the ocean. My concerns about the environment are pressure, temperature, humidity, corrosion, bio-fouling, currents, wave action . . . .

Energy saving. Power plants is one of the major contributors of carbon emission. Use innovative methods to save energy.

I'm not from the mining industry but here goes.

The person that might ask said question is an ISO auditor.

They typically want to know if you have proper recycling systems set up for scrap copper wire. old fluorescent tubes. discarded electronic equipment, scrap steel, paper, cardboard and so on.

The auditor might want to know if those systems are documented, monitored and just as importantly if you are aware of them.

see http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iso.org%2Fiso%2Fiso_14000_essentials&ei=q73nTYn6IsjKgQfM5rnyCg&usg=AFQjCNHpSRZRM_MyoGsVU7iTCrmbDEF_rA