Electrical Systems of Buildings

Chapter 2: Overview of Electrical Circuit

Senior T. A. Abdul Ghani Noori

Energy-Efficient Electrical Systems for Buildings, CRC Press, 2017

Kandahar University
Engineering Faculty
1 Energy Engineering Department 3/13/2022
Table of Contents

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Review of DC and AC Circuits

2.3 Multi Phase AC Systems

2.4 Power Factor Correction

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2.1 Introduction

Electricity is becoming the main energy source used in most buildings.

Electricity is required for lighting, air conditioning, transportation, and

operation of numerous appliances in all residential and commercial
buildings.

The electrical power usage in office buildings has grown from 10–33 W/m2
(1–3 W/ft2) in the 1940s to 54–108 W/m2 (5–10 W/ft2) in the 2000s.

The main feature of electricity is that it can be easily and quickly transmitted
and distributed over long distances using wires and cables without
significant losses.

The size of the required wires to transmit and distribute electricity depends
mainly on the voltage level.
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Cont.

The higher the voltage, the smaller the required wire size to deliver a given
amount of electrical power.

Unfortunately, high voltage levels are not safe to human life and property.

 For safe utilization, low voltages are typically used in buildings.

Since almost all buildings use alternating current (AC), an overview of

fundamental principles of single- and three-phase systems is provided.

The concepts presented in this chapter are essential to perform the required
design calculations properly to select the proper electrical systems for
buildings, as outlined in the subsequent chapters of this textbook.

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2.2 Review of DC and AC Circuits
Direct Current

When electric current remains constant and does not change significantly
over time, it is typically called direct current (DC).

To generate DC, batteries or DC generators are used.

Voltage, E, is the potential difference or the electromotive force (Emf)

that forces the electrons to flow in an electrical circuit.

Current, I, is the flow rate of electricity and is defined as the number of

electrons (measured in Coulomb) flowing per second in an electrical
circuit.

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Cont.
Coulomb is the SI unit of electric charge, Q, and represents 6.0×1018
electrons.

The current, I, can be expressed as a function of the quantity of

electricity, Q, flowing in an electrical circuit over time.

The unit of current, I, is ampere (A). The direction of the flow is

conventionally considered positive when the electrons are flowing from
negative to positive voltage.

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Cont.
A good analogy to an electrical circuit and its properties is a hydraulic circuit
as illustrated in the below figure:

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Cont.
Resistance, R, is the property of a circuit to resist the flow of electrons in a
similar manner that the pipe resists the flow of water due to friction.

The unit of resistance is Ohm (Ω) named after the scientist who first
discovered Ohm’s law.

The resistance of any wire of a cross section A, and a length L, can be

expressed as follows:

 Where ρ is the resistivity of the material that makes up the wire.

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Cont.

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As indicated in Table 2.1, silver, copper, and aluminum are examples of
materials considered to be good conductors.

Only Aluminum and Copper are sufficiently inexpensive to be considered

for general wiring applications in buildings.

Aluminum is too soft to be used in small wires even though it is cheap.

Therefore, Copper is the preferred material for most wiring applications in

buildings.

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Cont.

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Cont.
Specifically, conductor sizes are expressed using either the American wire
gauge (AWG) or the thousand circular mil (MCM) scales.

The American wire gauge (AWG) scale is used for small wires (typically
used for branch circuits or feeders of small buildings).

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Cont.
 Thousand circular mil (MCM) scale is used for large wires (typically
considered for feeders and sub feeders of commercial buildings).

 A circular mil, Acmil, is defined as the cross-sectional area of a conductor

having a diameter d = 0.001 in (or 1 mil).

 The area expressed in circular mil, A, of a conductor with any arbitrary

diameter, D, (in inches) is obtained by dividing its area in in.2 by Acmil as
follow:

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Cont.

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Cont.

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Cont.

Wire Gauge

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Cont.

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Cont. Ohm’s Law
 A simple yet a fundamental relationship between voltage, current, and
resistance was established by Georg Simon Ohm in 1827.

 This relationship is known as Ohm’s law and can be expressed as.

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Cont.

 Based on Ohm’s law, electrical power and energy consumed by an electrical

circuit can be estimated using one of the three relationships shown in Table 2.4.

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Cont. Kirchhoff’s Laws

Two important laws, known as Kirchhoff’s laws, are used in almost any
analysis of electrical circuits.

The first Kirchhoff’s law states that the algebraic sum of all currents in one
node is equal to zero.

 Where nc is the number of electrical

circuits that meet in one node

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Cont.
The second Kirchhoff's law states that the algebraic sum of all the voltages
around a closed loop in an electrical circuit is zero.

 Where nV is the number of voltages

measured in the closed loop.

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Cont. Resistances Connected in Series
The equivalent resistance for a circuit, made up of several electrical
resistances connected in series, is given by

 Where nS is the number of resistances connected in series.

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Cont. Resistances Connected in Parallel
The equivalent resistance for a circuit, made up of several electrical
resistances connected in parallel, is given by

 Where nII is the number of resistances connected in parallel.

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Cont. Total Power
 The total power, Ptot, consumed by the electrical resistances connected
either in series or in parallel is simply equal to the sum of all the powers, Pj,
consumed individually by the resistances.

 Where Pj is the power consumed by individual resistances.

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Cont.

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Cont.

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Cont.

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Cont. Alternating Current
 Unlike DC systems, the electricity in AC systems changes both direction and
magnitude.

 Almost all power provided by electrical utilities are produced by AC

generators.

 The operating principles of a single-phase AC generator is illustrated in

Figure 2.5.

 The generation process involves the principle of electromagnetism.

 When a rotating coil is moved across a magnetic field (created by a

permanent magnet or an electromagnet), an induced voltage or often called
electromotive force (emf) is generated in the coil.

 As the coil rotates, it meets the magnetic field at various angles.

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Cont.

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Cont.

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Cont. Instantaneous Voltage and Current
When a linear electrical system is subjected to AC, the time variation of the
voltage and current can be represented as a sine function:

 Where Em and Im are the maximum instantaneous values of voltage and

current, respectively.

 These maximum values are related to the effective or root mean square
(rms) values as follows

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Cont.
 ω is the angular frequency of AC and is related to the frequency f as
follows:

 Φ is the phase lag between the current and the voltage.

 Φ is zero when the load is a resistance (heater), current and voltage is in

phase.

 Φ is negative when the load is capacitive (capacitance), current lead the

voltage.

 Φ is positive when the load is inductive (motor), current lags the voltage.

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Cont. Impedance of AC System
Electrical impedance (Z) is the measure of opposition that a circuit presents
to a current when a voltage is applied.

Understanding the impedance is useful for performing AC analysis of

electrical networks, because it allows relating sinusoidal voltages and
currents.

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Cont.

In most buildings, linear electrical systems are made up of a combination

of three basic systems: resistance, inductance, and capacitance.

 Electrical heaters and incandescent lamps behave like pure resistances.

 Induction motors and ballasts for fluorescent lamps can be considered as

combinations of resistances and inductances.

 Synchronous motors act like capacitances.

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Cont.

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Cont. Power Triangle and Power Factor
 The instantaneous power, p(t), consumed by the electrical system operated
on one-phase AC power supply can be calculated using Ohm’s law.

 This equation can be rearranged using some basic trigonometry and the
definition of the rms values for voltage and current (i.e., Erms =Em/ 2 and
Irms =Im/ 2):

 Two types of power can be introduced as a function of the phase lag angle φ
the real power PR and the reactive power PX as defined in the following.

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Cont.
 For convenience, a complex power is introduced to represent the real power
and the reactive power as follows.

 PR is the actual power consumed by the electrical system over its operation
period (which consists typically of a large number of periods, T).

 PR is typically called real power and is measured in kW.

 PX is the power required to produce a magnetic field to operate the electrical

system (such as an induction motor) and is stored and then released; this
power, typically called reactive power, is measured in kVAR.

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Cont.

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Cont.
 The user of the electrical system consumes actually only the real power.

 The utility has to make available to the user, both the real power, PR, and the
reactive power, PX.

 The vectorial sum of PR and PX constitutes the total power, PT, and is
measured in kVA.

 From the figure, it is clear that the ratio of real power to total power
represents the cosine of the phase lag.

 This ratio is widely known as the power factor, pf, of the electrical system

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Cont.
Example 2.3

Problem
Determine the impedance of an induction motor rated at 120 V and 960 W
(electrical power required) with a power factor of 0.80.

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Cont.
Solution
First, the phase angle of the impedance can be determined from the power
factor.

Then, the magnitude of the current, rms, is determined from Equation 2.21
since the real power is known

Since the induction motor is an inductive load, the current lags the voltage
(refer to Figure 2.7). Therefore, the current can be written using the
complex numbers as follows

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Cont.

Using Ohm’s law for AC circuits provided by Equation 2.17, the impedance
of the induction motor can be calculated

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Cont. Advantages of AC Systems
Currently, almost all building electrical loads are supplied by AC power
even though only DC power was available in late 1900s when electricity was
first discovered.

Their inherent advantages are the main reasons for the dominance of AC
over DC systems. Among these advantages are the following:

1. Lower generation costs.

2. More efficient voltage transformations.

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2.3 Multi Phase AC Systems
Multiphase AC Systems
 The 1 phase power output is not constant and the average power is half
than its maximum power.

 2 Phase power output is constant at every instant and the average power is
equal to the maximum power of one phase.

 3 phase power is also constant at every instance and the average power is
1.5 times the maximum power of one phase.

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Cont.
In 3 phase, we have two types of connections which are named Wye &
Delta connection.

We have two types of voltage in any connection.

1. Phase voltage
2. Line voltage

In Afghanistan the phase voltage is 220V and the line voltage is 380V.

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Cont. Wye System

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Cont.
When the loads are balanced, the neutral current in three-phase wye-
connected system is zero.

The phase current, Iφ, is the same as the line current, IL, in wye-connected
system.

The phase voltage, Vφ, is equal to VL/ 3, in wye-connected system.

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Cont. Delta Systems

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Cont.
Typically, the delta system has only three wires (i.e., three phases) and no
neutral.

The phase voltage, Vφ, is the same as the line Voltage, VL, in delta-connected
system.

The phase current, Iφ, is equal to IL/ 3, in delta-connected system.

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Cont. Wye vs Delta
Wye Delta
 Star connection is used where we  In Delta connected system VL = Vp
required neutral terminal to obtain  While IL = 3Ip
phase voltage.  Insulation level is high because
 In wye connected system VL = 3Vp, line voltage = phase voltage.
means phase voltage is 3 times less  Generally used where high starting
than line voltage. torque is required
 In wye connected system IL = Ip.
 Wye connected system require less
insulation level.
 Wye connected system is used where
low starting current is required.

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Cont. Power in Three-Phase System
Similar to the one-phase systems, three types of power can be defined for
three-phase systems:

Total power, PT (expressed in VA or kVA).

Real power, PR (expressed in W or kW).
Reactive power, PX (expressed in VAR or kVAR).

 The magnitudes of the total power, the real power, and the reactive power
used by any three-phase system can be easily determined from the line
voltage, EL (VL), and line current, IL, values using the following equations

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Cont.

Example 2.5
Problem

a) Determine the line current drawn by 7.50 kW load with a power factor of
75% from a 480Y power source.

b) Estimate the real power and the total power used by each phase if all the
phases are balanced.

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Cont.

Solution

a) From Equation 2.55, the line current can be determined as a function of

the real power, the line voltage, and the power factor

 For a balanced wye-connected load, the phase current is the same as the line
current.

b) If the phase loads are balanced, the real power used by each phase is
simply PR,φ = PR,3φ/3 = 2.50 kW. Thus, the total power consumed by each
phase is

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2.4 Power Factor Correction

Most of the loads are combination of resistive and inductive loads.

So the resultant power factor will be less than one and lagging which is not
good for electrical system.

To improve the power factor, capacitors can be added.

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Cont.

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Cont.

In most rate structures offered by utilities to their customers, one of three
options is used to assess the penalty for low power factor.

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Cont.

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Assignment-2

Please solve the following problems from the problems of chapter-5.

2.1 – 2.16

Submit the assignment within one week from the date of completion.

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Thank You!

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