Author Archive
I Squared What?
It’s the new popular color in the electronics world. GREEN! Everyone, everything, everywhere is better when green.
I²R losses is the general term to denote inefficiencies in power transfer and conversion. And since there are more computer chips running our lives, we need more power. It takes a lot of electrons to open and close those tiny little gates in the computer chips that are now found everywhere! And in route from the nuclear power station or the hydro electric dams, a lot of those electrons are wasted on heat that is generated by electric currents. Read the rest of this entry »
De-Rate or not De-rate? That is the question!
The practice of derating power connectors has been varied among users for decades. Back in the day, (yes, I am over 50!) many users took a simple approach, assigning an arbitrary percentage to the current carrying capability – we’ll call it the C³ or C cubed factor. So if a connector supplier submitted a product that was rated at say 100 amps, then a user would factor by say 30%. The idea was that since this is a huge safety issue, no one wanted to take any chances that a power connector may over heat. Read the rest of this entry »