The odds that you’ll succeed without taking action are about the same as winning the lottery without buying a ticket!

For those times when you feel trapped, stressed, or in a prison of your own making, take purposeful action. It’s your Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card!

In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In goal-setting its action, action, action! You can’t just stick out your thumb and hitchhike your way to success. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and do the work that needs to be done. The acid test of goal setting is purposeful action.

Be seduced by the attractiveness of your goal. Inaction leads to impotence. Taking purposeful action immunizes you from “Goal Parkinson’s,” a long, slow goodbye to your dreams.

A quality life is accomplished when thoughtful attention, goal setting, and purposeful action click into position.

Whether your dream is to be or not to be is largely dependent upon your actions! The cure for the ills of procrastination is a heavy prescription of action, until the day arrives when your dreams and their achievement are one in the same. Until you cannot tell them apart! And when that day arrives, dream bigger dreams and take more action.

A good plan will almost always get you in the door, but it is action that seals the deal. So you want a guarantee? Well here it is: Without purposeful action, the only guarantee is failure and mediocrity!

Don’t tiptoe toward your goal, walk confidently…before it waltz’s off into the arms of neglect.

Dreams become reality through one simple mode of transportation: purposeful action. The

continuation of bad habits, such as procrastination, is like having an addiction to weapons of mass destruction.

It is tragically un-hip to procrastinate. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people never display their true potential; it never has an opening night… never makes a debut. The bulk of potential resides deep within each individual just waiting to come out. And it stays there because people are afraid.

The mechanics of achieving a goal make it easy for people to relate to the necessity of action. But when action is not purposeful, it can be an Achilles heel.

When we operate without planning, we remain forever scattered and confused. You’re always busy, but not much gets accomplished. Without a deeper appreciation and application of planning, the most you can expect is marginal improvement.

Intimidate your fears through purposeful goal-directed activity. Since when is being the underdog any reason for not pursuing your dreams?

Remember–it’s not the size of the dog in the fight… it’s the size of the fight in the dog!

Don’t just pursue your goal… inhabit it! Wear it, act it, live it, taste it! Get committed–take action. Life is not a scratch-and-sniff test!

When you set a goal, there’s distance between your current reality and desired reality.

Procrastination increases the distance and minimizes the chances of achievement.

Procrastination is the mother of regret. It postpones the future, aborts liftoff at the last minute. Unless you take action to achieve your goals, life becomes a constant series of postponements, cancellations, and missed opportunities.

You will never attain your goals simply by thinking and talking about them. You must take action!

Everything Counts!

Does your child hold his pencil or crayon with a “death grip?” Does she hold it too lightly or touch it only with the tips of her fingers? Does your child complain that his hand hurts so he can not complete his assignments at school?

As an occupational therapist in a school district I often see children using inappropriate grips when writing. Why is a pencil grip so important? An appropriate pencil grip will directly impact your child’s handwriting. If his/her hand becomes tired too quickly, they will not want to hand write. Kids will try to avoid handwriting altogether, which ultimately affects their academics.

There are developmental stages to grips, just like a child learns to crawl before they walk. The first stage is to hold the writing implement like a fist, which is called a gross grip. This is increasing the strength and stability in the pinky side of the hand. Stability is extremely important when the child is expected to write for long periods of time years after this is developed. The second stage is to hold the pencil with a digital pronate grip. This is where the child holds the pencil at its tip with his thumb and forefinger and the palm of his hand is on top of the shaft of the pencil. This is increasing the strength and dexterity in the first three fingers of the hand. Dexterity is extremely important to improve fluidity and efficiency when writing. The third stage is to hold the pencil at the tip with the eraser pointing up and the shaft of the pencil rests in the space between the thumb and forefinger. This space is called the webspace. The webspace should be open and loose so as not to cause stress in the hand. In addition, the last 2 fingers of the hand should be tucked into the palm for stability (which was learned in stage one). At this time it is typical for the child to move his hand as a unit. He may also use his entire arm when coloring. This is acceptable if it is functional for his/her developmental age level. The following stages incorporate this tripod grip. However, the main goal is to move only the tips of the fingers while the arm and wrist are stable.

Now that you know the progression of grips, what can you do to help facilitate these grips? The most effective GRIP TIP is to throw away all long and thick writing implements. Children have small hands and should use small writing implements. I strongly recommend that you break all of your crayons into halves or thirds. Use golf pencils and sharpen them so that they are 2-3 inches long. Many parents and teachers are often shocked when they are asked to do this “silly” act. However, the result is usually well worth it. If a writing implement is long or tall there is room for the child to hold it with all kinds of whacky grips. If the implement is short, there is only room for the first three fingers to hold it. This will ultimately encourage a perfect tripod grip!

Now that you know how to promote dexterity when writing, what happens when the child seems to lack stability? Typically a lack of stability is indicated by very sloppy writing, print is very faint, or the child has difficulty writing on the line. The other possibility is that the child is trying to compensate for their lack of stability by holding onto their pencil with a “death grip.” This is when a child may overlap their fingers over other fingers. For example, a child may wrap his thumb across the front of the pencil and his index finger. This ultimately causes a tight webspace. The child will tend to write with very hard pressure, break the tip of the pencil, or complain of hand pain after only a few minutes. An effective GRIP TIP to promote stability is to tuck a small object into the palm so that the last two fingers have to hold the object. Any object would suffice, as long as it is comfortable to the child. A popular item is to use a penny and call it a “magic penny.”

Please keep in mind that these techniques may cause hand fatigue when your child first attempts to use them. This is because your child’s muscles have already been trained in performing a certain way. You are ultimately retraining your child’s muscles. However, once your child’s muscles adapt, your child’s handwriting will be on its way to success!

The concept of being “overqualified” is intriguing. Job seekers who are desperate for employment rarely agree with this assessment when being denied jobs. If you’ve ever been lumped into the “overqualified” category you are not alone. In fact, you join the ranks of an ever increasing pool of candidates who have a combination of experience, credentials, and/or education that will make you stick out like a sore thumb in the position for which you are applying.

But to whom?

Hiring managers and supervisors are like match-makers: they try to place the right person in the right position. Their decision making process is based upon a myriad of factors such as your work history, skill-set, educational studies, and personality. They are then matched against the job responsibilities and duties which they feel are “requirements” for succeeding in the position.

They are usually wrong.

From the perspective of a company’s clientele, employers could never hire someone who is “overqualified” to cater to their needs. Conversely, the employee who is under-qualified is often the one who sticks out like a sore thumb, causing us to shake our heads and wonder “how did they get the job?”

Not all employers shy away from so-called overqualified employees. The downturn in the economy has created an over saturation of qualified employees in the marketplace which allows employers to do some robust cherry picking.

Sixty-four percent of workers who were laid off over the last 12 months said they have applied for positions that were below the job level they had held previously, according to a survey by Career Builder.

In a buyer’s market the employer has tremendous leverage, and the sellers (the prospective employees) must make concessions. It’s just that simple. For some it will include reducing salary expectations, for others it may mean acquiring new skills and transitioning into new roles.

If you feel that you are overqualified for a job you are seeking, address that concern in your cover letter upon submitting your resume. The key is to allay the employer’s concerns that you may not be “challenged” (i.e. bored) in the position. The key is to communicate awareness of your potential “overqualified” status as an asset, not a liability.

When that fails, lie. Well, not lie exactly; just become more guarded with the truth. Eliminate parts of your history which paint you as an overqualified candidate. Temp agencies do it all the time. Trumping up resumes (making candidates appear more qualified than they actually are), and stripping them down (making candidates qualifications more compatible with a position by removing extraneous information which makes you look overqualified), is a standard business practice.

Once you demonstrate your understanding of what the position entails, your sole responsibility is to articulate how the value of your experience will translate into success in the position. Doing so will resolve the dilemma of being overqualified and get you back to work.

Fun science projects are those that teach you something about science and at the same time allow you to make something useful and fun. This is one of those projects!

The job of a burglar alarm is basically to tell you when someone who shouldn’t be in your house has come in – not so. And where will these nasties come in? Through a door or window – right? So if we can make something that will tell us when a door or window has been opened that should not have been opened, we would know when someone, who shouldn’t be coming in, is in fact coming in – right?

So how are you going to pull this off without some specialized equipment.

Easy…

You are going to use simple circuit that when closed with a switch will set off an alarm. The switch is going to be a clothes peg!

First up – what you are going to need:

• Approximately a meter of flexi-wire
• A 9V battery (the correct scientific term is a cell)
• A 9V battery (cell) holder
• A wooden clothes peg
• 2 thumb tacks
• A sharp knife
• Electrical insulation tape
• An small electric buzzer

And here is how it is done –

• Strip about 1cm of the plastic insulation off the one end of both wires of the flexi-wire using the sharp knife.
• Attach both wires of the one end of the flexi-wire to the battery holder by joining the wires together and then wrapping insulation tape around the joins.
• To the other end attach the buzzer in much the same way as you did the battery holder. To check if all is good up till now, if you attach the battery the buzzer should sound.
• About half way down the wire cut one of the wires in half, leaving the other one in tact. Strip the ends so that about a centimeter of wire is exposed.
• Press the thumb tacks onto the inside of the opening end of the clothes peg. Before you push them all the way in, place the end of the wire you have just stripped under each of the thumb tacks and push them in hard so that the wire is held there.
• Attach the battery. If everything is attached correctly, with the clothes peg closed, the buzzer should buzz. If it does not, you need to check your connections on the battery, buzzer and peg.
• Once everything is working, open the clothes peg and jam it into the gap of a door and it’s frame or in a slightly open window.
• Alternatively, put a piece of cardboard or paper between the thumb-tacks that has a string attached. The other end of this string can be attached to anything that is going to move, with the idea that if that object is moved the cardboard is pulled from between the thumb-tacks.
• Once the thumb-tacks touch – if all is in working order, the buzzer will alarm you to something out of the ordinary.

And hey presto – a simple, but very effective burglar alarm.

People who want to invest in land to either “develop” it (as that term is defined in the articles in this Land Development Values series) or to build on it and sell a total package (e.g., a new home on its lot) have to sift through many parcels because everybody wants to try to sell them a property! The process of identifying the parcels that are worth pursuing, therefore, is very time consuming, and land buyers need tools to enable them to quickly weed out the junk and identify those parcels that warrant further consideration. So buyers typically use rules of thumb and formulas for their preliminary screening.

These rules of thumb are designed to provide rough estimates relating to the yield of a site and different cost factors because these are the key aspects in calculating the “right” price they should pay for the land. By defining the price at which the numbers work, land buyers can see within minutes if the seller’s asking price is realistic. If the land parcel is substantially overpriced, the buyers can simply discard the property and move on to better prospects.

Commercial Land Developments
Not surprisingly, the methodology for roughly estimating site yield and improvement costs is not the same for both residential and non-residential land developments. For retail or office parcels, the yield is the amount of potential building space that can be built. This is usually a function of the number of parking spaces that will fit on the parcel and taking into account the overall development limits imposed by impervious coverage and green space requirements set by the zoning ordinance. One rule of thumb might be used to estimate the total amount of land area needed for each car that would be parked on the office property (e.g., square feet for parking space plus drive aisle). Another would approximate the amount of land area taken up by sidewalks and walkways. A third rule of thumb might assume that the cost for vertical and horizontal improvements would be $100/sq. ft. of office space.

Residential Land Developments
The rules of thumb applied to residential land developments would be designed to estimate the number of building lots that the parcel could produce once the subdivision had been completed, and the cost for horizontal improvements. The value of each “raw” building lot would be calculated based on the projected sale value of the finished product (house on its lot) and the improvement costs.

One site yield rule of thumb might net out of the gross land area of the parcel the amount of square feet that would be wasted or couldn’t be used for whatever reason and then would divide the result by the amount of the minimum lot size required by the zoning to come up with the number of lots. For example, the rule of thumb calculations might look like this for a 15 acre vacant parcel zoned for 20,000 sq. ft. lots:

Step 1: 43,560 sq. ft. x 15 acres = 653,400 sq. ft.
Step 2: 653,400 sq. ft. x 70% = 457,380 sq. ft.
Step 3: 457,380 sq. ft. divided by 20,000 sq. ft. = 22.87 building lots

The final result is always rounded down, so there would be roughly 22 building lots for this parcel. In the second step, 30% of the gross site area was deducted to account for wastage, square feet lost because of natural constraints (e.g., slopes, floodplain, irregular shape) and land area that would be taken up by new roads in the community.

Remember that rules of thumb can vary by geographic area. They are rough estimates so you should modify them as circumstances warrant and not just apply them blindly. If a substantial portion of the 15 acre parcel was in floodplain, it wouldn’t make any sense to deduct only 30% from the total gross site area. If you’re not sure what rule of thumb to use, be conservative.

I wonder how many of you are big-time readers. You know the kind, the ones who can read a book a week or sift through endless reams of data and advice to help them develop a financial plan that will lead them down the path to prosperity.

However, if you’re like most people and don’t have the time to read through a mountain of books, magazines and web-sites (or have the inclination to do so), then this article is for you. It will list out the main “rules of thumb” for financial planning.

1. The Savings/Investing Rule of Thumb:

Pay Yourself First: Aim to set aside at least 10% of your take-home pay

I’m sure you’ve seen this rule of thumb before. I first read it in The Richest Man in Babylon. As you will learn, paying yourself first is the most important bill you will pay each month.

The best way to implement this rule is to make it automatic. Have 10% of your take-home pay pulled from your paycheck and deposited into a separate bank account. If your employer doesn’t allow you to do this, simply set up a transfer between your main account and your “ten percent” account equal to ten percent of your paycheck.

If you already have a well-funded emergency fund and your short-term goals have been funded, you might funnel all of the ten percent into a retirement plan. Of course if you set aside 10% in your retirement plan, you’ll be contributing pre-tax which works out to be more than 10% after-tax.

2. The Short-Term Debt Rule of Thumb:

So-called “Bad” Debt should not equal more than 20% of your income

Short-term debt includes your car and student loans, as well as your credit cards and other forms of debt. Essentially everything except for your mortgage. You need to list all your outstanding liabilities and their respective minimum/monthly payments. Now add up the minimum/monthly payment amounts and you come up with a figure.

Take this number and divide it into your monthly take-home pay.

If the result is more than 20%, you’re carrying too much revolving debt. New entrants to the workforce or recent graduates often have a higher debt-to-income ratio because of their student loans and entry-level jobs that pay low salaries.

Compulsive spenders also have a problem because they spend every dollar they make.

You should aim to put at least 20% of your net pay toward paying down your outstanding debts. If you cease to add to your short-term debts today, you will find that you can pay off most of your short-term debt anywhere from 3-7 years.

3. The Housing Cost Rule of Thumb:

You should spend less than 36% of your monthly pay on housing

This rule of thumb is mainly for homeowners, but if you’re renting and spending more than 36% of your monthly pay in rent, you’re either living in NYC or San Francisco and it’s time to find a new place. Either that or find another roommate.

Why 36%?

Well, banks like to see that the cost of your monthly mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, and utilities will not place an undue burden on your finances.

In short, they calculate the cost of living in your home and know that if you’re exceeding 36% for your housing costs, you’ve probably bitten off more than you can chew.

Regardless of what your current percentages are, aim to reduce these percentages over time. Just because a bank is willing to lend you up to 28 percent of your gross monthly income, it doesn’t mean that you should borrow that much money to buy a house.

The less money you borrow, the faster you can pay it back and the higher your monthly cash flow will be (because you’re spending less on your mortgage). The less you spend monthly, the more you’ll have to invest for your future.

4. The Retirement Rule of Thumb:

You need to save about 20 Times your annual gross income to retire

There are a whole bunch of calculators and spreadsheets on the Internet (I have one as well) that you can use to figure out how much you’ll need to retire. I’ve never come across anyone who has the patience to fill one of these out and they only take two minutes to complete! The solution is what author Robert Sheard calls the Twenty Factor Model.

Essentially the formula is:

Financial Independence = annual income requirement X 20

The formula is based on two centuries worth of returns in the stock market and the real rate of return (5% annually) you can expect to earn after taxes, expenses and inflation.

If you have 20 times your annual income requirement, it means that with the prescribed withdrawal rate of 5% yearly from your nest egg and the annual expected net return on your investments of 5%, you’ll never run out of money.

Now isn’t it much easier to multiply your gross income by 20 than to fill out one of those online calculators? I thought so. Let’s move on.

5. The Insurance Rule of Thumb:

You should have a policy equal to at least five to eight times your annual income as a minimum.

Some planners suggest even more than five to eight times your annual income as the level of coverage you should carry. My suggestion is that you get your financial house in order, which means getting your net worth and cash flow statement together, and go talk to a good insurance agent about your needs.

He or she will be able to walk you through the various options. As with a financial planner, ask them how they’re compensated to keep them honest with the advice they’re giving you.

Please note that this factor or rule of thumb could be much higher, depending on the number of years of income you will have to replace. The highest “factor” I’ve seen is to multiply your annual after-tax income by 20.

Interesting that it’s the same as the above rule of thumb. No coincidence here. If you were to die and wanted to make sure your dependents would continue to receive exactly what you brought home each month, they would need to completely replace your income forever. According to the Twenty Factor Model, having an insurance policy with at least 20 times your annual income will do.

6. The Charity Rule of Thumb:

Give away at least 10% of your net pay every month.

Most of us think that there isn’t enough money to go around. We live in a state of scarcity instead of a state of abundance. We think that if we give away ten percent of our income each year, we can’t possibly make ends meet or be able to afford a decent retirement.

I understand the fears, but if you put the previous five rules of thumb in place, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about making ends meet. Let me explain.

Journalist Scott Burns, in his article titled, “Take a Look at Returns” did an analysis of the amount of money you would need to save in order to not run out of money by the time we die, assuming we retired at age 65. The conclusion was that we would have to save 34 percent of our income if we planned on living another 20 years after we retired. The analysis assumed that we would earn no return on our investments.

But you’ll earn something on your investments, right? Of course you will. Burns goes on to show that the higher the return on investment, the less you have to save.

The 34 percent of income that young people need to save today if they earn no return falls to 25 percent if they earn the historical 2 percent real return of bonds.

It falls to 15 percent if they earn the 5 percent real return that a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio is likely to earn.

It plummets to 9 percent of income if they earn the 7 percent real return of common stocks.

You’re already putting aside 10% of your money (Pay Yourself First Rule of Thumb) and once you pay down your short-term debts, you’ll have an extra 20% of your pay freed up to invest wisely. Actually, if you’re setting money aside tax-deferred, you’re putting more than 10% of your net pay aside each pay period, but why split hairs.

In short, you have more than you think.

Give a little away and see how little an impact it will have on your standard of living. Of course you’ll feel better about yourself and you’ll be helping others in the process. No wonder it’s my favorite rule of thumb.

    You can use it to hitch a ride. Roger Ebert has made a fortune using one or both – up or down. It’s universally recognized as the sign for a number of affirmatives – “okay”, “good job”, “looking good”, “it’s under control”, among others. It’s also the appendage that one would be inserting “where the sun don’t shine” in a well known metaphor for aimlessly idling one’s time away. We are, of course, referring to the thumb.

    In terms of playing guitar, the thumb is like the “red headed step child” of the playing hand. More neglected than even the “pinky” finger (but that’s for another article).

    The focus of our playing hand, the hand that attacks the fret board, is typically centered on the first three fingers. These are the easiest to use. They are stronger, longer and faster than the pinky or thumb, so they face the call to action much more than their “weaker” siblings.

    But as guitar players, we would be wise to make full use of all of our appendages when playing. In fact, we might be surprised to find that the effort that goes in to incorporating the use of the thumb into our playing technique will result in making some tasks on the guitar neck even easier!

  

    Here are some uses for the thumb when playing guitar:

1. Walk Downs

2. Chord Formations

3. Muting

4. Added Pressure

5. Playing Lead

    Let’s take a look at some of these:

1. Walk Downs – The thumb can be put to good use when playing a “walk down”. This is when you start on one chord and “walk down” to a resolution chord, typically by way of a “passing” chord in between.

    When the bass notes of a walk down occur on the 6th string (low E in standard tuning), it is often easier to use the thumb to play some or all of those bass notes, rather than trying to use the fingers.

    A good example would be the commonly used walk down from an open G chord, down to an Em. The passing chord between these two chords is normally a D/F# (D over F#). The easiest way to play this chord is to form an open D chord as normal, then wrap the thumb up on to the 2nd fret of the 6th string (F#). This method makes for a smooth transition.

2. Chord Formations – The thumb can also be used to assist in the formation of chords. Many chords are conducive to using the thumb. For example, a minor 7th chord could just as easily be played with the thumb.

    Jimi Hendrix was known for making use of the thumb to form chords where most of us would use barre chords.  Rather than “barring” the 1st finger across a fret to make a standard barre chord, he would often use his thumb to play the bass note, form the rest of the chord like normal, and then play the remaining notes as necessary with the first finger.

    Try this next time you pick up the guitar. Play an A barre chord at the 5th fret. Now lift off your 1st finger that is making the “barre”. Then take your thumb and use it to play the A root note on the 5th fret of the 6th string. Finish by placing your 1st finger in the 5th fret of the 1st and 2nd strings. You are playing the same identical notes as the barre chord version, just with a different  hand formation. Try this with minor barre chords as well. It can be a little liberating once you get used to it!

3. Muting – The thumb is a great tool to use for muting strings when strumming rhythm patterns. For example, an F chord in the open position is normally played using only the first four strings.  It would be difficult to perform some aggressive strumming maneuvers without striking the 5th and 6th strings. Using the thumb to lightly mute these two strings will solve the problem. The same can be said for many open chords that do not use all six strings, such as the C, D and Am chords in the open position.

4. Added Pressure – There is a natural tendency when playing guitar to keep the thumb in a position that is wrapped over the top of the neck. There are times, however, when you may need some extra finger pressure on the strings to form a chord or play a lick. That extra pressure can often be found by bringing the thumb down to a position where the ball of the thumb is planted firmly on the middle of the back of the guitar neck. This increases the amount of pressure for the fingers and provides extra pivoting power.

    In terms of conventional guitar instruction, this thumb placement position is often considered to be the accepted way to play guitar.

5. Playing Lead – There are some players who incorporate the thumb into playing lead runs and solos. It is really a matter of personal preference and what you get used to. I have never mastered this approach to playing leads but have seen other players use it effectively.

    Regardless of your guitar playing style or approach, there are probably times when using your thumb when executing chords and licks might make good sense, and, make life a little easier. So when your fingers go out for a “dance” on the fret board, don’t forget to take the thumb along for the ride! 

As fuel costs rise and power outages become more prevalent around the country, the power generation and distribution system in the US has come into sharp focus. So too has the need to conserve energy and the need to invest in energy-efficient products of all types. Of particular interest are products like power transformers that remain energized and consume energy 24 hours a day.

The transformer is a critical component of the energy grid. If even a single unit shuts down for a short period of time, a large number of households and commercial establishments are plunged into darkness resulting in a substantial economic loss.

Unfortunately, a significant amount of equipment in the public utility grid is over 40 years old and needs to be replaced in the near future. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), distribution transformers which are 30 years old or more can waste between 60 and 80 billion kWh annually. A better designed transformer could yield an annual energy savings of up to $1 billion. Thus, maintenance, retrofitting and purchasing of new transformers are fast becoming imperatives.

The Importance of Transformers

The distribution transformer – is the most important single piece of electrical equipment installed in an electrical distribution network. It also has a large impact on a network’s overall cost, efficiency and reliability. Selecting and acquiring energy-efficient distribution transformers which are optimized for –

* A particular distribution network

* The utility’s investment strategy

* The network’s maintenance policies

* Local service and loading conditions

– will provide definite benefits (improved financial and technical performance) for both utilities and their customers.

As climate change looms on the horizon, there is also an increased interest in the protection of the environment from greenhouse gas emissions. The regulatory requirement now is to install high-efficiency distribution transformers that have less energy losses, which eventually results in fewer pollutants being released into the environment.

Transmission Losses

Transformers aren’t perfect devices; they don’t convert 100% of the energy input to usable energy output. The difference between the energy input and that which is available on their output is quantified as energy loss. There are two types of transformer losses: no-load losses and load losses.

* No-load losses

No-load losses are also referred to as core losses. This loss is calculated based on the amount of power required to magnetize the core of the transformer. Since most distribution transformers are energized 24/7, no-load losses are present at all times, whether a load is connected to the transformer or not. When lightly loaded, no-load losses represent the greatest portion of the total losses.

* Load losses

Load losses on the other hand, are those losses incident to carrying a load. These include winding losses, stray losses due to stray flux in the windings and core clamps, and circulating currents in parallel windings. Because load losses are a function of the square of the load current, they increase quickly as the transformer is loaded. Load losses represent the greatest portion of the total losses when a transformer is heavily loaded.

Deciding which Transformer to Purchase

Many electrical distribution utilities claim that they purchase distribution transformers using some type of loss evaluation procedure. However, transformer cost continues to be a major factor in determining which transformer to buy. The components in a transformer, design, construction and installation all affect its cost. For example amorphous metal core transformers have 75% less no-load loss than a silicon steel core transformer but cost 25% more than a silicon steel transformer.

Transformer losses affect the cost of design, construction and installation. The transformer manufacturer typically incorporates the cost of losses in the cost of the transformer in optimizing transformer design.

Most companies buying transformers look at the quotation rather than the total cost of ownership (TCO). The TCO over the life of the transformer tends to be high in less energy-efficient transformers, while the initial cost is higher and the TCO low for energy-efficient transformers.

The payback period for investing in high-efficiency transformers however is relatively short – often less than 2 years. The Internal Rate of Return in energy efficient transformers is consistently above 10% and sometimes as high as 70%.

Making buying decisions for a large power transformer is more complex than simply comparing manufacturer prices. It requires a company to know its requirement and compare not just the cost of transformers but also the TCO over a two- to three-decade period. If this is accurately done, the cost-efficient solution invariably turns out to be the energy-efficient transformer, even though it has a slightly higher initial cost.

When purchasing transformers, there is no question of a ‘short-term’; these infrastructure investments are typically made with 30 to 50 years of service in mind. Energy-efficient transformers are thus definitely the only way ahead, given the strong economic case they make over the long run.