The Most Confusing Part of the Power Grid
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What the heck is power factor? 🌌Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/Practical-Engineering 🚢Watch the next season of Jet Lag: https://nebula.tv/jetlag?ref=practical-engineering Geomagnetic storms aren’t the only thing that can make the grid behave in funny ways. There are devices even in your own home that force the grid to produce power and move it through the system, even though they aren’t even consuming it. Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/practical-engineering-the-most-confusing-part-of-the-power-grid Signed copies of my book (plus other cool stuff) are available here: https://store.practical.engineering/ Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos! CONNECT WITH ME ____________________________________ Website: http://practical.engineering Twitter: https://twitter.com/HillhouseGrady Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/practicalengineering Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PracticalEngineering Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PracticalEngineerGrady​ Patreon: http://patreon.com/PracticalEngineering SPONSORSHIP INQUIRIES ____________________________________ Please email my agent at practicalengineering@standard.tv DISCLAIMER ____________________________________ This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. SPECIAL THANKS ____________________________________ This video is sponsored by Nebula. Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5, and Videoblocks. Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com/creator Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fBPdu8w9U Video by Grady Hillhouse Edited by Wesley Crump Produced by Ralph Crewe Graphics by Nebula Studios
  • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
    8·
    4 months ago

    I really enjoyed this video. It went into a few things I was fuzzy about despite having to ELI5 power factor to corpo suits on a semi-regular basis for about a decade.

    Nebula link for those that partake.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      Since you have the power of ELI5 maybe you can explain the difference between resistance and impedance. I’ve always been fuzzy on that.

      I do appreciate hulk Hogan has appropriate PPE to operate an oscilloscope. Good attention to detail

      • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
        2·
        4 months ago

        I’m not the right person to ask for that kind of differentiation… it’s been a long time since I’ve had to do much of anything with component-level circuitry, and it’s use it or lose it as they say.

        My experience is mostly at the data center level. And I got real tired of having to explain to uninformed C-suite micromanagers and their sycophants why it’s a Bad Idea to run the industrial AC off of the UPS, for instance. Or they’re nitpicking because a UPS is 40kVA and saying 96% capacity while “only” supplying 37kW and completely ignoring the fact that we REALLY should not be running it that close to max, as stated many times, instead choosing to “investigate” why the math doesn’t add up (hint: it’s because the power factor was less than 1).

        (And if my math doesn’t add up, I’m blaming it on exhaustion and being out of practice. Roast as needed.)

        • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          I imagine in the data center power outage scenario, the UPS is just to buy you enough time to get the generators going.

          I’ve been in a fair few data centers that run so hot, even a few minutes without air conditioning probably would be catastrophic.

          With liquid cooled racks, I imagine any interruption becomes very problematic

          • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
            2·
            4 months ago

            You are correct, generator is the way to go, with the UPS covering for the transfer time. AC goes on the generator.

            Unless you don’t spec the generator to be able to handle the AC and have to do a song and dance with rolling units for every power outage. Then the AC sits idle while the undersized rolling unit just barely keeps the room below 95 degrees.

            Or if you build out an office in an area famous for hurricanes and instead of a generator you buy a shitton of (physically compatible but logically incompatible) battery banks, reinforce the floor to hold the weight, then complain about not being able to have an accurate remaining runtime during an outage and bitch about people having to be sent home because it’s now 90 degrees and humid inside the cube farm and why isn’t the AC on battery we have so much battery.

            And then the same people walk away with millions when the company gets bought out and they move on to their next victim to do it all over again.