May 17, 2011

Electrical Engineering

Today I shadowed an electrical engineer named Chuck who was working on many projects. He was finalizing the electric circuits for the new Jesuit High School’s gym facility. He explained the electric design on a sleeve plan, which is just a huge printout of the design on paper. There were a couple of changes he had to do which he modified on AutoCad.  He then needed to enter wall sensors into the design but he had to assure that the number of sensors did not exceed the amperage of the electric panel that is located on the end side of the design. Therefore, he taught me the main equation used in electrical engineering which is Amperage= Volt/ Resistance. I learned that lower the resistance the bigger the wire and the amperage would be bigger and if the resistance is high the smaller the wire and the amperage would be less. He did this according to electrical engineering conditions set by the state. On Autocad he pointed out the lights that served as back up lights.  As one of the conditions says that a wall sensor cannot be placed where there is only one light. Another project we worked on was analyzing a field report for Lufkin Hospital and pictures taken of transformers and generators. First, I was given the report and I highlighted the important details such as physical damages such as oil leakage and measurements of the spaces between generators and bases. From this point we went through it together and verified what had to be modified and we figured out that some measurements violated the electrical conditions set by state laws. He pointed out the different parts of the generator such as switches, duct buses, and piping. As an electrical engineer one must make sure that the generator does not give too much amperage or that amperage needed exceeds the amperage supplied.  As a result, he must write a report to the hospital stating what is wrong and what has to be done.

Another project we worked on was a room for ALOFT in which the diagram consisted of a restroom and where appliances would be plugged in. However, we had to add receptors to the room to estimate the total amperage to make sure the amperage will not exceed the supply of the generator. The diagram ended up having 17 receptors that were not indicated for the appliances labeled in the room. The appliances were a tv, a copier, a fridge, a microwave and a dvd. After that we entered the data into a excel sheet in which calculations were done. He emphasized once again how the equation: amp= V/I  is important but that it was basic. This only took a breeze; once it was done it was emailed to the person who is asking for this project. I was taken to the BIM room which has 2 screens and one smart board, which is utilized when a project is, completed all the designs of every systems are brought together in the AutoCAD program to view where systems collide to fix them before construction actually starts to help save money and time. I enjoyed today because I gained knowledge of electrical engineering, which has me more curious than before.