Customer Reviews

Switchgear and Control Handbook

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You know there may be a slight problem when you find large numbers of punctuation and grammatical errors early in a big book sold at this price. When you more than once find two or three contributors' articles rehashing the same material (but using slightly different "standard" diagram symbols), your reservations about the editorial standards involved increase. Learning half a dozen different ways to control blenders and hair clippers, when you were thinking more of 13.8 KV switchgear, is a further awkward twist. Want a sampling of makes, models and photos? Forget it. I do hope you want to take Electric Motors 101 several times, though. (I didn't even think it was ABOUT motors when I bought it!)

So anyway, I was pretty bummed, and I wouldn't have shelled out for it, I don't think. I'm keeping it around, though. I did come across some nice tables, and it has an index. There's also one, slpendid, nuts, bolts and numbers article on coordinating overcurrent protection. I mean, this guy does this to relax! They should have put it in a small book and charged [less] for it. (It would take up less room and be lighter to hold.) Some people could also find a use for the breakdown torques of induction and synchronous motors, etc. (I'd let them add that to the small book), but there's just too much disorganization and fat.

I would speculate that one way to make a living is to hustle articles from eager contributors into a "big, expensive book", kick back and enjoy the margin. I for one will keep this in mind while shopping in future.

The book is less about switchgear and more about the broad field of electrical engineering. It gets so far off track that it even has diagrams of resistor-diode logic circuits. It covers far too many topics in very little detail. For example, from the title I expected more than four very short paragraphs on current transformer burden. My initial disappointment told me to return the book; but I have a hard time letting go of any book with any use, even if I paid too much.