The Ultimate Automobile Manufacturing Guide

What Is Electrical Design?

19 June 2017 by Carlos Sullivan

When you hear the phrase electrical design, you may think about things like interior design using electricity, or creating art using electricity. While those things may be interesting, that's not what is usually meant when the phrase electrical design gets used. 

Electrical Design

Electrical design refers to the designing of various electrical systems. That's usually done by an electrical engineer. They will look at the requirements of what each particular thing needs and figure out how to make the incoming electricity work to meet the needs. There are several different things that an electrical engineer can design. 

Building Electrical Systems

One thing that electrical engineers can design are the electrical systems that run homes and buildings. In these cases, the designer will look at what the building is being used for, what its power needs are going to be, and what kind of load it will generally carry. For example, for your home, the electrical system schematic would have where the power lines would meet your house and where the electrical meter would be. The designer will look at how many rooms are in the house and how many circuits you are likely to need so that they can set up your circuit breaker appropriately. After that, they will figure out how many outlets and fixtures you need and where they should be. 

Wiring Harnesses

In vehicles, wiring harnesses are used so that power can get to all the parts that need it. For example, in a street sweeper, a wiring harness will go from a battery to all the interior and exterior lights, as well as to the sweeper mechanism, and anything else that may need power. An electrical engineer who works with vehicles will figure out the best way for the wiring harness to be set up. That includes what kinds of connectors should be used so that the wiring harness can hook up to the other parts of the vehicle. The wiring design will also include what gauge of wire will be used in the wiring harness. Generally, the heavier the wire, the more it can carry without problems. The electrical engineer can also design a wiring board so that the wiring harness can be made, ensuring that all the wires are the right length and so that various connectors will leave at the right point on the harness. 

Electrical design makes sure that the electricity gets where it needs to be.   

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