I like the recent addition of the general lighting loads, but there are a couple of additional things that I would like to see related to that.

1. I think that the calculated load should include the greater of the general lighting load or the connected lighting load. The NEC states that the values for the general lighting loads are minimum values and that they may not be adequate.

Ok, so this is probably a low priority because the NEC values are pretty conservative. With the increased adoption of energy conservation codes it becomes less likely that the connected lighting load would be more than the NEC values. But it would still be nice to be able to do this automatically.

2. I would like to see the Connected kVA column include only the connected lighting load and the Calculated kVA column include only the General Lighting load (or preferably, the greater of the General Lighting load x 100% or the connected lighting load x 125%).

For me there is a pretty good reason for doing it this way. There is a situation that I have all the time. Let’s say that I have a 10,000 sq. ft. retail building. The General Lighting Load at 3 VA/sq. ft. is 30,000 VA (125 amps @ 240V). The connected lighting load may only be 10,000 VA (42 amps @ 240V) if I use energy efficient lighting.

Now let’s say that I have a distribution panel and two sub panels. I could easily have a 100 amp lighting panel, but how do I allocate the General Lighting loads? If I put it all on the lighting panel it looks like the panel is overloaded when it really is not. If I put it on the distribution panel the lighting panel has no lighting load – which is not accurate.

Of course there are a lot of things that I can do manually. I can allocate just the right amount to the lighting panel and put the rest on the distribution panel. That works perfectly, but it requires me to do it manually. It would be easier if it could be done automatically.

Add the ability to specify breakers with electronic trip units (ETUs), aka adjustable trip breakers, in Design Master projects.

The intent of adding this capability would be to allow the user to flag where an ETU is used and display the required/desired settings.

It would NOT be the intent to make DM have the functionality to do the coordination studies necessary to develop the settings.

1) Electronic trip breakers, when used, are usually MCBs or feeder breakers with the following characteristics:

Breaker Frame (AF)
Breaker trip (AT)
Breaker plug size (AP)*

Long-time pickup (LTPU)
Long-time delay (LTD)
Short-time pickup (STPU)
Short-time delay (STD)
Instantaneous Pickup (IPU)
Ground-fault (GFPU)
Ground-fault delay (GFD)
Zone-interlocked (Z)
Ammeter**
Energy meter**

Some breakers for the European market have these settings in lue of GFPU and GFD:

Earth-leakage pickup
Earth-leakage trip delay

2) These results could be presented on the drawings by:

a. A settings table/schedule listing the circuit and the characteristics listed above.

b. A modified panel schedule header incorporating the items above when the main has an ETU.

c. A modified switchboard schedule listing the above characteristics as columns on each feeder and the header section modified to incorporate the ETU attributes on the main.

3) DM would probably need to create a new SubType 4 for ETUs in the panel and circuit tables. tblCircuit would need to have fields added for the characteristics above.

4) To enter the settings there would need to be a user selection on:

a. The panel definition screen - for panels where the main is adjustable.

b. The switchboard definition screen - for switchboards where the main is adjustable.

c. On the circuiting screen - for switchboard feeders with ETUs.
All three of these would call the same screen to enter and store the characteristics above.

5) Some additional rules:

a. Default wire selection should remain as it is now “Size Automatically. If a user wants to change the wire ampacity to match a LTPU setting they should have to manually add a wire size for that amperage and change the wire selection.

b. ETUs are usually not available in frame sizes smaller than 250A.

c. It would be helpful to capture the basis-of-design for each ETU, by that I mean the manufacturer and breaker catalog number/description used.

* Some manufacturers allow the selection of plug sizes different from the trip and frame setting. For example GE offers a 1175 amp plug for its 1200AF with a 1200AT as an alternate means to meet NEC 240.87 (energy reducing active arc flash mitigation).

** Some manufacturers, e.g. Schneider, offer built-in amp or energy metering on their Micrologic trip units.