Preparing Workers for Cold Environments - Electrical Contractor Magazine

"With winter rapidly approaching, it is important to protect workers from the coming cold temperatures and potential extreme weather. Prolonged exposure to these conditions can result in serious health problems, including trench foot, hypothermia and frostbite. Extreme cases can even result in death. Although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has no specific standards pertaining to work in cold environments, employers are obligated to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards, including those caused by winter weather.

In general, outdoor work requires preparation. However, in the winter months, it calls for additional planning. Employees should be trained on winter hazard recognition, identifying and monitoring themselves for signs of cold stress, and they should know actions to take if they exhibit these symptoms. It is important to note that people who are in poor physical condition or have predisposed medical conditions, such as hypertension, hypothyroidism and diabetes, are at a higher risk of sustaining an injury or illness as a result of cold stress. Emergency help should be sought immediately if someone is experiencing uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, clumsy movements, fatigue, or confused behavior.

Encourage workers to protect themselves from cold, wet and windy conditions by dressing accordingly. OSHA suggests wearing multiple layers to provide better insulation and to help adjust to changing temperatures. OSHA's winter weather guide recommends, "An inner layer of wool, silk or synthetic (polypropylene) to keep moisture away from the body, a middle layer of wool or synthetic to provide insulation even when wet; and an outer wind and rain protection layer that allows some ventilation to prevent overheating."

OSHA also indicates that a knit hat should be worn along with insulated, waterproof boots and gloves. Of course, when working around energized lines or circuit parts, all winter clothing must also meet arc-resistant ratings.

When working in the cold, it is important to stay dry. Any moisture or dampness caused by sweat, snow or rain can increase the rate of body heat loss. Therefore, having an extra set of dry clothes is always a good idea when working in winter conditions. Tight clothing should be avoided because it can reduce blood flow and result in more rapid heat loss.

Outdoor work in the winter should be scheduled at the warmest time of the day. Employers and employees should pay attention to weather conditions during winter storms and have a reliable means of communications with each other. This can be helpful if a work stoppage or evacuation becomes necessary. Being aware of and monitoring severe weather indicators, such as outdoor sirens, radio and television, can be helpful, as well. In addition, workers can better monitor each other for cold stress symptoms if they work in pairs.

Employers should provide a warm, dry place for workers to take breaks from freezing temperatures. Exhaustion and fatigue in cold weather can result in a higher rate of body heat loss. Provide warm beverages and sports drinks for employees, and inform them that avoiding caffeine and alcohol can help them maintain a warmer body temperature. Employees should also consider eating warm, high-calorie foods, such as pasta, when preparing to work in cold environments.

Other measures an employer can take to protect workers include providing the right tools for the job, offering de-icing solutions for tools or equipment, shielding work areas from wind or providing radiant heaters.

Fuel-burning heaters should be used outdoors only because they emit carbon monoxide. Electricians should never use a fuel-burning heater indoors or in any enclosed area.

Linemen and wiremen attempting to restore power in winter conditions must use extra caution, as well.

OSHA's winter weather guide states, "Repairing and/or replacing damaged power lines in severe winter weather conditions are especially hazardous. A major hazard is snow, because the moisture can reduce the insulation value of protective equipment, and could cause electrocution. In these conditions de-energized work is safer, but if energized work must be done, qualified workers and supervisors must first do a hazard analysis that includes evaluating the weather conditions and identifying how to safely do the job."

Remember that de-energized lines should be treated as if they are energized, and you should never touch metal surfaces with your bare hands.

If you would like more information regarding cold and winter weather safety, OSHA's website (www.osha.gov) provides numerous resources, or you can check out the National Institute of Safety and Health cold stress guide (www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/coldstress)."

Source: http://www.ecmag.com/section/youre-gonna-need-bigger-coat

Xtralis' upgrades to the ADPRO - ADPRO XOa 3

"Why Remote Video Verification Makes All the Difference" - Xtralis

"Most people understand the basic premise of the intruder alarm system: detectors are strategically positioned in a building, with door contacts and a control panel that are usually connected to internal and external sirens on site, and then are connected via a standard telephone line to a Central Monitoring Station (CMS). Most customers are under the illusion that this protects their premises, but in reality it doesn't make the doors any stronger or the windows any tougher, they still break when struck. Nothing actually stops the intruder from getting into the building other than deterring them with the promise of a response. 

An intruder alarm system is really just designed to detect an intruder AFTER they have broken into the premises and at best will limit the time an intruder spends on the premises since they know the authorities have been notified. In a single sentence, an intruder alarm system is 'designed to limit loss.'

False alarms can and do happen, and oftentimes the primary causes of false alarms are actually quite simple. It boils down to poorly designed and installed security systems or human operating error. Even something as harmless as the positioning of an advertising module or display near a ventilation outlet may result in a false alarm when it moves in the air currents. A 'break-in' might actually be nothing more than a display that tips over and triggers the alarm. And while CCTV is great for recording what happens as evidence in the event of a break-in (or for things like parking lot surveillance), if the intruder is wearing a mask or a cap and their face cannot be identified all you really have is a recording of the loss.

However, remote video verification from a centralized monitoring location can help protect a building AND better account for real and false alarms. A remote off-site video verification system includes a detection device that covers the same field of view as the CCTV camera. The cameras and detectors are connected to an ADPRO transmitter. The ADPRO system is then connected to the customer's public address system or an amplifier with speakers sited eternally around the premises. On site the customer has complete control of the CCTV system as an onsite surveillance system. The difference is that when the customer vacates the premises and arms the intruder alarm they also arm the ADPRO system.

If an intruder approaches the building, when they enter the field of view of the camera, the ADPRO system 'grabs' three frames of video from that camera at 1-second intervals and dials through to the Central Monitoring System. In the Control Room the attending operator receives these three frames of video on a single Quad screen along with a fourth video image that replays all three frames of video in a video loop, to ensure that the operator can clearly determine what generated the alarm. This way the operator knows if the alarm is actually something that needs to be addressed, or if it's just a false alarm. The operator can then switch to live video from that camera of select any camera to view. The operator can observe someone on site, and simply use a microphone to challenge the intruder with a simple warning such as 'You in the grey jumper, you have activated a remote video alarm system please leave the site immediately!' This way the intruder knows they are being actively watched by someone!

The operator could operate any PTZ camera from the CMS and obtain a good image of the intruder prior to warning the intruder off. This may in turn be forwarded to the police for appropriate action. A customer can also control access to the site by motorizing the access gates, installing an intercom at the gates and connecting the remote outputs to the ADPRO system.

Having remote video verification allows businesses and organizations to save money. Many municipalities will issue fines for false alarms to cover the costs of dispatching police or other personnel. Video verification alerts the operator as if something that triggered the alarm is in fact an intruder, or if it is something due to human error. In some areas, having alarm verification is a requirement for a security system. Some city police departments will not respond to a building alarm unless the alarm has been verified as a 'true alarm' first. Without a verification of the alarm, the police may not respond which could leave the building vulnerable if an intruder is in-fact trying to get in. 

The success of video alarm verification has been clearly demonstrated by the installation of ADPRO products on tens of thousands of large scale commercial, industrial and government sites around the world. These installations are well-engineered, integrated solutions, comprising a variety of outdoor and/or indoor sensor technologies and a combination of CCTV and video transmission systems." 

Source: http://blog.xtralis.com/?p=120

Electrical engineer's work may signal better wireless connections. Exciting.

Dr. Aria Nosratinia, a University of Texas - Dallas electrical engineering professor, is currently investigating how to improve wireless connections.

The wireless space we have now may become too crowded in the future, which may interfere with efficiency and function. Nosratinia aims to "develop methods that break the wireless messages into microstreams, or smaller pieces, enabling them to be transmitted through -- rather than against -- other signals in the environment. We use this method together with liquid-metal antennas, which allows us to change radiation patterns effectively and reduce interference." 

This study is an expansion of a previous project in which Nosratinia discovered "a new dimension in the communication over multi-user wireless channels," providing "a new set of tools to address the challenges of transmission in a wireless medium, and therefore improves the quality of wireless communication."  

So far, the research has received a $608,000 award to support a collaboration with researchers from the University of Hawaii, a $421,000 grant to expand on the previously mentioned discovery regarding the behavior of wireless channels, and an approximately $1.13 million collaboration to investigate hardware Trojans with another University of Texas - Dallas electrical engineering professor, Dr. Yiorgos Makris. 

The professor earned his electrical and computer engineering PhD from the University of Illinois in 1996, and has gained an Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professorship along with a fellowship of IEEE for multimedia and wireless communications contributions. 

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uota-eew110315.php

Time to Adjust: Changes to the 2016 NFPA 72

Excerpted from page 94 of Electrical Contractor Magazine. 

The Mystery of the Flickering Star

This development was just too cool to pass up. Recently, professional and citizen scientists in the Planet Hunter program using the Kepler Space Telescope picked up on a bizarre occurrence - a flickering star.  Located around 1,500 light years away, the star has been labeled KIC 8462852. Out of the approximately 150,000 stars that the telescope observes, this one star is somehow displaying unusual, irregular flashes light.

Theories as to what may have caused this phenomenon are varied. An astronomer at Yale University, Tabetha Boyajian, wrote that " the scenario most consistent with the data in hand is the passage of a family of exocomet fragments, all of which are associated with a single previous breakup event."

Others brought up the possibility that this event could be a confirmation of alien life, exploring that "the mysterious dips in light were due to massive structures built around the star by an advanced civilization."

Who really knows? The Kepler Space telescope was damaged in 2013 so researchers have less data to work with and unfortunately will have a hard time figuring out just what is happening 1,500 light years away.

Read more here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/kepler-space-telescope-mysterious-objects-raise-questions-bizarre/story?id=34494182
Tabetha Boyajian's Report in the Monthly Notes of the Royals Astronomical Society: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.03622v1.pdf

How portobello mushrooms are going to replace graphite in batteries.

"Can portabella mushrooms stop cell phone batteries from degrading over time?

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering think so.

They have created a new type of lithium-ion battery anode using portabella mushrooms, which are inexpensive, environmentally friendly and easy to produce. The current industry standard for rechargeable lithium-ion battery anodes is synthetic graphite, which comes with a high cost of manufacturing because it requires tedious purification and preparation processes that are also harmful to the environment.

With the anticipated increase in batteries needed for electric vehicles and electronics, a cheaper and sustainable source to replace graphite is needed. Using biomass, a biological material from living or recently living organisms, as a replacement for graphite, has drawn recent attention because of its high carbon content, low cost and environmental friendliness.

Diagram showing how mushrooms are turned into a material for battery anodes.

UC Riverside engineers were drawn to using mushrooms as a form of biomass because past research has established they are highly porous, meaning they have a lot of small spaces for liquid or air to pass through. That porosity is important for batteries because it creates more space for the storage and transfer of energy, a critical component to improving battery performance.

In addition, the high potassium salt concentration in mushrooms allows for increased electrolyte-active material over time by activating more pores, gradually increasing its capacity.

A conventional anode allows lithium to fully access most of the material during the first few cycles and capacity fades from electrode damage occurs from that point on. The mushroom carbon anode technology could, with optimization, replace graphite anodes. It also provides a binderless and current-collector free approach to anode fabrication.

“With battery materials like this, future cell phones may see an increase in run time after many uses, rather than a decrease, due to apparent activation of blind pores within the carbon architectures as the cell charges and discharges over time,” said Brennan Campbell, a graduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering program at UC Riverside.

The research findings were outlined in a paper, “Bio-Derived, Binderless, Hierarchically Porous Carbon Anodes for Li-ion Batteries,” published today (Sept. 29) in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. It was authored by Cengiz Ozkan and Mihri Ozkan, both professors in the Bourns College of Engineering, and three of their current or former graduate students: Campbell, Robert Ionescu and Zachary Favors.

Nanocarbon architectures derived from biological materials such as mushrooms can be considered a green and sustainable alternative to graphite-based anodes, said Cengiz Ozkan, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering.

The nano-ribbon-like architectures transform upon heat treatment into an interconnected porous network architecture which is important for battery electrodes because such architectures possess a very large surface area for the storage of energy, a critical component to improving battery performance.

One of the problems with conventional carbons, such as graphite, is that they are typically prepared with chemicals such as acids and activated by bases that are not environmentally friendly, said Mihri Ozkan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Therefore, the UC Riverside team is focused on naturally-derived carbons, such as the skin of the caps of portabella mushrooms, for making batteries.

It is expected that nearly 900,000 tons of natural raw graphite would be needed for anode fabrication for nearly six million electric vehicle forecast to be built by 2020. This requires that the graphite be treated with harsh chemicals, including hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids, a process that creates large quantities of hazardous waste. The European Union projects this process will be unsustainable in the future.

The Ozkan’s research is supported by the University of California, Riverside.

This paper involving mushrooms is published just over a year after the Ozkan’s labs developed a lithium-ion battery anode based on nanosilicon via beach sand as the natural raw material. Ozkan’s team is currently working on the development of pouch prototype batteries based on nanosilicon anodes.

The UCR Office of Technology Commercialization has filed patents for the inventions above."

Source: http://www.upworthy.com/what-do-portobello-mushrooms-have-to-do-with-better-batteries-everything?c=utw1&utm_content=buffer4bdcf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer