There's winter cold... and then there's Antarctica
As we start to enjoy slightly warmer weather, spare a thought for all those wintering over at Scott Base – average temperature minus 30°C, or minus 35°C if you take wind chill into account – that's on a good day with only 5 knots of wind.
Hedley Berge, project electrician of Antarctica New Zealand, has been at Scott Base since October 2008. After reading about AS/NZS 3000:2007 Amendment 1 in the last issue of Touchstone, he wanted a PDF of the amendment and had problems downloading it, so he asked for our help, which we were happy to provide.
It occurred to us that doing electrical work outside in winter conditions is challenging enough at the best of times – doing this type of work in sub-zero temperatures in an Antarctic winter is definitely something else again. So, we asked Hedley to tell us about the work they've been doing at the base.
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[more]Electromagnetic compatibility – new edition due for publication
A new edition of one of the IEC's best-selling publications dealing with EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) is to be published in a few days.
The importance of EMC phenomenon is such that in 1993 the first edition of IEC 61000-4-8, Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Part 4-8: Testing and measurement techniques – Power frequency magnetic field immunity test, was one of the first immunity Basic EMC publications to be released. Edition 2.0 takes into account the experience obtained in testing equipment using that standard. It clarifies the test set-ups and contains revised characteristics, performance, and verification of the test generator to simplify that test.
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[more]STANDARD IN DEVELOPMENT
In-service safety inspection and testing
Committee: EL/036
Project Manager: Nelson Procter
Estimated Publication Date: April 2010
Comments: This project includes the revision of AS/NZS 3760, AS/NZS 5761, and AS/NZS 5762. The committee has been assembled and the first meeting was held at the end of August.
DRAFT STANDARD FOR COMMENT
DR5125 Heat pump water heaters - Performance assessment Part 1: Air source heat pump water heaters (Revision of AS 2984 - 1987)
Specifies the test conditions and test procedures for determining the energy performance characteristics of single circuit air-source heat pump water heaters. Public comment on this draft closes 3 November 2009.