Electrical Inspectors Advising Islanders to Properly Maintain Aluminum Wiring
from The Journal Pioneer
Canadian electrical inspectors are advising Islanders that aluminum wiring can be safe but must be properly maintained. Inspectors have received a number of inquiries recently about the safety of aluminum wiring, many calls coming from home owners considering alternate heat sources such as portable heaters, electric fire places and electric baseboard heating. Although not commonly used anymore in residential dwellings, aluminum wiring was often installed in homes from the mid-1960's until the late 1970's. More

Power to Spare
from Health Facilities Management
Emergency power is essential for every health care facility. It has been a requirement in the National Electrical Code and other codes and standards for many years and is typically a condition of licensure. While these requirements are well-known to health facilities professionals, they may want to consider going beyond these minimums. More

Electrical Safety Authority: Electrical Safety Tips - Dealing with Flooding
from Canadian Business
Ontario's current severe weather conditions could lead to frozen water pipes and result in flooding. Ontario's Electrical Safety Authority warns the public to follow basic safety steps in response to flooding. More

Isolating Grounds in Industrial Transceiver Systems
from Dataweek
Industrial communication via fieldbus transceiver systems often requires long transmission lines. Designers, unaware of the large ground-potential differences (GPDs) between remote bus locations, either rely on the local earth ground as a reliable signal return path or directly connect remote grounds to each other, thus creating noisy ground loops. In both cases, the integrity of the transmission signal is compromised, which can lead to system lockup and, at worst, destroy the bus transceivers. More

More States Offer Rebates for Home Wind Turbines
from The New York Times
Buying a small wind turbine to power a home can be costly — in the range of $12,000 to $70,000 (including installation fees), according to Ron Stimmel, the small wind expert at the American Wind Energy Association. A number of states offer help. Altogether, says Stimmel, some kind of financial incentive for residential small wind is available in about 17 states, though in some cases the incentives are offered through utilities rather than directly by the state itself. More

Electrical Fire Closes Historic Miami Restaurant
from the Miami Herald
Miami firefighters prevented an electrical fire from burning down one of Miami's oldest and most unique Cuban restaurants Tuesday morning. Employees arriving about 6 a.m. for the morning shift at the Rancho Luna Restaurant called firefighters after seeing dense smoke coming out of an exhaust fan by a stove, according to Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Ignatius Carroll Jr. No one was hurt. More

Web Site Fights Electrical-product Fakes
from Consulting-Specifying Engineer
As worldwide economic conditions worsen, unscrupulous manufacturers are flooding the market with an increasing number of counterfeited electrical products. Because these fake wares haven’t been safety tested, they could seriously injure, even kill, consumers that unwittingly purchase them. To thwart the counterfeiters, Electrical Contractor and TED magazines have launched CounterfeitsCanKill.com, a Web site that aims to educate about the dangers of buying and installing counterfeit electrical products, bringing the message to the attention of every stakeholder in the $130 billion electrical contracting industry. More