Voltages in the Royal Manticoran Navy.

[Bjorn Hoover]

Hi all, was wondering if anyone has a source for voltage/frq in use in TRMN warships. I assume 440@60hz, but is the distribution system 11kv? Higher? Also, given that operation of any mechanical circuit breaker generally gives between 1/50-1/20 of a second before tripping if the aic isn’t exceeded, do they use vacuum fuses? Would they use tiered zonal architecture with rings for redundancy within each subzone?

[Peter Gold]

Seems an oddly specific question. You'll probably not get an official answer.

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[Bjorn Hoover]

Specific, yes, but given my specializations and hobbies, I’d love to work through and create drawings that include power and rcps per deck, helps with my immersion. Additionally with my plans for a 1/250 scale model for a reliant class, knowing how the system is set up will help with how I power the lights.

[Peter Gold]

Getting down to receptacles per deck is an awful lot of detail drawings. Especially as there aren't detailed layouts of the spaces. Even a simple one line would be a few thousand pages.

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[ADM Michael Paquette, RMN]

As the power is based on futuristic fusion technology, I would not be certain that the power output was 400@60hz. It is very likely to be a much higher output, or even lower and more efficient. The books are 2000 years in the future, and the power needs are dramatically different. Quantum computing would likely be "slow", gravitics requirements onboard, plus powering the sails/impellers, etc... Just a thought...

[Timber Lupindo]

Adm. Paquette makes an excellent point. On the other hand, ductile iron pipe will always look like ductile iron pipe. While modern breaker panels don't look like ones from fifty years ago, they're still recognizable as they serve the same underlying principles.

Here's an exercise for you. If you were to build a house from scratch, independent of any existing technology, but dependent on reasonable equivalent structural and safety regulations, what would the systems look like? Would you put 20A 120VAC circuits everywhere for lighting, or just have a chonky 12VDC supply into which you can plug local controllers for LED strips? Even if you drove LED thermal efficiency to reasonable unreasonable limits, you'd still need some minimum power to light work area.

Power tools would need more power, of course, and there are a lot of good reasons to use AC. So those systems would look like what we're familiar with. But would you use 50Hz, 60Hz, 400Hz, or some other frequency? 1KHz would be annoying. What line voltage would you use? For your purposes, could you get away without specifying any of that?

I have another idea: Stop work on this. Write up a Warrant project proposal. Get approval. Continue your work.

[Bjorn Hoover]

Aye sir.

[Chris Hollaway]

I did a warrant project for the damage control school and developed a (simplified) ship's information book for a Saganami-C heavy cruiser. In the section on power systems, I stated:

"The reactor output is converted to electrical energy using a combination of thermal converters and photovoltaic panels. The output voltage of 600 volts DC is then inverted and stepped up to 6.9 kVAC. High voltage switchgear then distributes power to ship’s systems using a network of stepdown transformers, medium voltage load centers, and low voltage distribution panels."

The voltages I used were made up but reasonable based on current electrical principles and physics. Photovoltaic panels take the sun's energy and convert it DC electricity. I had a 5kW solar electric system at my old house with 3 strings of 8 panels each. The nominal voltage of each string was 384 volts DC. I postulated that in the future, the photovoltaic panels and thermal converters would use a higher voltage (thus lower currents) to reduce I^2R (power) losses through the cabling. The conversion to AC voltage/current and step-up transformers was for motor efficiency and power for heavy duty machinery and power transmission with minimal power losses versus DC power. I limited voltages to 6.9 kVAC because higher voltages require more specialized protective gear, vacuum breakers, and circuit tripping schemes. Needless to say, this was all still very speculative on my part.

[ADM Michael Paquette, RMN]

"I have another idea: Stop work on this. Write up a Warrant project proposal. Get approval. Continue your work. "

Great Idea!! This sounds like a very interesting project topic! Would love to get a read, once completed! Thank you Mr. Hollaway for your input as well!!

[Bjorn Hoover]

I’m in touch with BuNine regarding electrical system architecture, they’ve been quite helpful!