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IEEE 1680.2™-2012: How to Decide What Energy Efficiency Means In a Category

We're all used to seeing stickers like those of the Energy Star program on electronics we buy. But here's a question— what exactly are they measuring when they say one product is more energy efficient than the next one? It's not as simple as a measure like miles per gallon, because different devices in the same category can have different levels of functionality and consumption and still be considered energy efficient. So who decides how we decide?

The answer is that there's a standard for judging each product category— which in turn helps point the entire category toward certain goals. That makes it a pretty important document, and one that needs to change with the marketplace and the state of technology fairly often.

IEEE 1680.2™-2012, Standard for Environmental Assessment of Imaging Equipment, defines environmental performance standards for imaging equipment (as defined by the U.S. ENERGY STAR Imaging Equipment Specification) such as copiers, scanners and printers, including such issues as reduction or elimination of environmentally sensitive materials, design for end of life, lifecycle extension, energy conservation, end of life management, packaging, consumables and indoor air quality. Its part of the IEEE 1680 family of standards that provides a clear and consistent set of criteria for the design of electronic products, and provides an opportunity to secure market recognition for efforts to reduce the environmental impact of electronic products.

The standard is defined with the intention that the criteria are technically feasible to achieve, but that only products demonstrating the leading environmental performance currently available in the marketplace would meet them at the time of the standard’s adoption. As the environmental performance of products in the marketplace improves, the criteria can be updated and revised to set a higher performance standard for leadership products— thus both recognizing and encouraging progress in energy efficiency in the category.

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IEEE 1635™-2012: How to Design the Best Environment for Your Batteries

Batteries, large and small, are all around us and essential to modern life. Batteries also necessarily contain chemicals that can be hazardous to life (modern or otherwise). Batteries, in short, should be treated with respect— and that’s the point of IEEE 1635™-2012, Guide for the Ventilation and Thermal Management of Batteries for Stationary Applications.

This guide discusses the ventilation and thermal management of stationary battery systems as applied to:

• Vented (flooded) lead acid (VLA)
• Valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA)
• Nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd)

For each category, both the technology and the design of the battery are described in order to facilitate user understanding of the environmental issues associated with each type of technology. By understanding best practices (which admittedly don't take all possible considerations into account), users can design and implement the optimum conditions for real world applications.

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IEEE 1630™-2012: Clang, Clang, Clang, Here Comes the Standard for the Trolley

As many standards as IEEE has published, there are always areas where technology and knowledge have been passed down within the field without the benefit of being codified and more widely disseminated as standards. One is overhead contact systems for transits— that is, the kind of trolley or rail system where power is supplied by an overhead line, a technology that’s been around a long time but remains an attractive choice for improving transit through urban and suburban areas.

IEEE 1630™-2012, Standard for Supporting Structures for Overhead Contact Systems for Transit Systems, determines minimum structural requirements for structural supports used for overhead contact systems for heavy rail, light rail, and trolley bus systems, including loading, safety factors and deflection. The purpose of this standard is to improve design efficiency for new and existing rail transit projects.

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IEEE 577™-2012: Ensuring the Reliability of Reliability Analysis for Nuclear Power Safety Systems

IEEE 577™-2012, Standard Requirements for Reliability Analysis in the Design and Operation of Safety Systems for Nuclear Power Generating Stations, is not a standard for safety systems themselves— it's a standard for how you evaluate safety systems, to ensure that everyone working in the field meets certain benchmarks of diligence and thorough analysis.

The standard sets forth the minimum acceptable requirements for the performance of reliability analyses for safety systems when used to address the reliability considerations discussed in industry standards and guidelines, and it applies at every phase from design to fabrication, testing, maintenance and repair. The objective of this project is to support licensing activities for nuclear facilities and to comply with the IEEE 5-year review plan.

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IEEE 62271-37-082™-2012: Measuring How Much an Alternating Current Circuit-Breaker Adds to Environmental Noise

How much noise should a circuit-breaker make? Not enough to notice, seems the obvious answer— but they will produce some, inevitably, and so measuring that sound level in the field is important to using them in a way that doesn't significantly degrade quality of life.

IEEE 62271-37-082™-2012, Standard for High-voltage switchgear and controlgear - Part 37-082: Measurement of sound pressure levels on alternating current circuit-breakers, provides methods for the measurement of sound pressure level produced by outdoor alternating current circuit-breakers in a free-field environment. These methods may also be used indoors or in restricted field, provided that precautions are observed in the measurement and interpretation of the results. The standard is being developed in collaboration with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

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IEEE C37.60™-2012: Making Sure Automatic Circuit Breakers Do the Job They Were Invented To Do

Can you name the inventor of the automatic circuit breaker? It was Granville Woods, an engineer mainly on railroad and telegraph systems who so impressed Thomas Edison (when he was suing Edison for infringing his patents) that Edison eventually hired him. (Another interesting thing about him is that he was African-American.) A number of his inventions are still in use, not least the automatic circuit breaker, which interrupts and tries to restore power after a fault, without the need for workers to manually reset the circuit— an essential piece of the reliable power grid Edison hoped to create.

More than 100 years after Woods' original patent, IEEE and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) continue to collaborate on modern-day refinements to Woods’ inspiration with IEEE C37.60™-2012, Standard for High-voltage switchgear and control gear - Part 111: Automatic Circuit Reclosers and Fault Interrupters for Alternating Current Systems Up to 38 kV. This part of IEC 62271 applies to all overhead, pad mounted, dry vault and submersible single or multi-pole alternating current automatic circuit reclosers and fault interrupters for rated maximum voltages above 1000 V and up to 38 kV.

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IEEE C57.154™-2012: A Standard for Liquid-Immersed Transformers Operating at High Temperatures

The bigger a transformer gets, the higher its temperature climbs without cooling— and that quickly determines how big it can get at all. Liquid coolants are one way to bring temperatures down and allow bigger transformers, but until now there has been no IEEE standard for this type of transformer.

IEEE C57.154™-2012, Standard for the Design, Testing and Application of Liquid-Immersed Distribution, Power and Regulating Transformers Using High-Temperature Insulation Systems and Operating at Elevated Temperatures, provides specific requirements and guidance in the design, testing and application of the transformers covered within its scope. These transformers incorporate high-temperature insulation systems or systems that use a combination of high-temperature and conventional insulation.

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