A massive solar storm rocked the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles this weekend, triggering spectacular auroras in the night sky across a substantial swath of both North America and Europe. Over the last weekend, one of the strongest geomagnetic storms of the millennium was experienced. ‘Extreme’ solar storm triggers Northern Lights as far south as →
Why??? They are so cheap these days compared to what they used to cost, why would you even bother to build your own fixtures? You will have more invested in parts and time then just buying them outright. I did build some disco lights in 1990′s. Nowadays you can buy many disco lights more cheaply →
Digitalization and software have made our lives easier and made our operations many times more efficient over the past decades. Data centers consume two to three percent of the planet’s total electricity usage now. It has considerable CO2 footprint. Various ICT solutions are responsible for 4–10 percent of annual electricity consumption and 3–5 percent of →
There are two widely used mains power frequencies for alternating current: 50 Hz and 60 Hz. Unless specified by the manufacturer to operate on both 50 and 60 Hz, appliances may not operate efficiently or even safely if used on anything other than the intended frequency. But there are also other frequencies used for power. But →
The Finnish sauna is a substantial part of Finnish culture. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists at the 17 December 2020 meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The sauna in Finland is an old phenomenon and its roots are difficult to trace. Saunas →
The time has come to phase out the use of toxic materials, such as mercury and phosphorus, in order to protect human health and the environment from their harmful effects. In the European Union, the use of mercury in products has been phased out gradually since 2006, and it is restricted by the RoHS Directive →
Replacing or installing a ceiling light fixture is often necessary because an old fixture has worn out or you want to do a decor overhaul. The work itself is usually quite easy, though anytime you are working with electricity there is some danger. Since an incorrectly installed lamp can cause an electric shock or fire →
European ceiling lights will start to use a common plug for easy installation. Device for Connection of Luminaires (DCL) is a European standard for ceiling light fixtures introduced in 2005 and refined in 2009. The history is longer. The history of the common ceiling light plug goes longer. In Finnish apartments, for over thirty years, →
I got a mains power (230V AC) surge protector for teardown and analysis. This one is designed to be installed to DIN rail on the small electrical distribution panel or inside electrical equipment. This one was in original package but already the indicator showed that it was broken. This protector protects against voltages above 320V →
What is low Z on multimeter? Dual impedance digital multimeters have feature to control the input impedance of the multimeter. LoZ stands for Low Impedance (Z). This feature presents a low impedance input to the circuit under test. A typical digital multimeter has typically around 10 megaohms input impedance, which loads the circuit being measured →