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Sustainability Analysis of Sanjay R. Chendvankar’s Design: “Driver Saves Power in Energized Relay”

This article provides analysis relating to sustainability for a design proposed by Sanjay R. Chendvankar entitled, “Driver Saves Power in Energized Relay.” []

The Four E’s of Sustainability
This section explains how Chendvankar’s design relates to the concerns of the four E’s of sustainability

Energy
Chendvankar’s design attempts to address power consumption issues related to relay drivers. A typical relay driver uses the same voltage to hold and energize the relay. This is a waste of power because the relay takes less voltage to hold than it does to energize. Although the techniques he uses to create this design are interesting, and possibly applicable to other systems, I feel the design falls short of its goal. The unusual power supply scheme necessary to induce the power saving capabilities of the driver make it impractical for most applications. Additionally, there are too many other factors necessary for the driver’s proper function, like the relay coil’s resistance and the main circuit’s load current draw

Environment
To fulfill his design, Chendvankar requires additional components and circuitry. The components will require energy and resources to manufacture and further more to add them to them to the circuit. Also, additional environmental costs arise in dealing with these components at the end of the driver’s life cycle. If the driver goes to the landfill then additional components will simply add more to the landfill, and if recycling takes place, disassembly takes extra time, money, and resources. Enduring these environmental strains require the driver to have outstanding power saving capabilities that are more substantial.

Economics
The design Chendvankar proposes requires a center-tapped transformer and a full-wave rectifier as a power source. These necessities pose economical disadvantages. Besides making the driver impractical to use in many applications, this extra circuitry, especially the center-tapped transformer, increases the cost of the driver’s components, manufacturing, and disassembly for recycling.

Equity
Less power consumption by electronics means less strain on the environment and natural resources. Chendvankar’s design also calls for additional components and resources to manufacture, counteracting the economic and ecological benefits of its proposed power saving capabilities. These aspects will impact everyone on the planet. Because of the driver’s power supply requirements, however, its applications are extremely limited and they would have very little impact on social and political equality.

The Green Engineering Design Principles
An analysis of Chendvankar’s design and how it embodies the green engineering design principles is provided in this section.

1. Engineer processes and products holistically, use systems analysis, and integrate environmental impact assessment tools.
 * Chendvankar’s design does embody this principle to some degree. He uses a holistic approach for his design, desiring a new kind of relay driver that uses less power. Reducing power consumption in the driver also reduces environmental impact.

2. Conserve and improve natural ecosystems while protecting human health and well-being.
 * Less power consumption would contribute to improving natural ecosystems. The additional components and resources required for the driver’s manufacture would not benefit human health and well-being or the ecosystem. Because of the limitations proposed by the driver’s design, constricting its power saving capabilities, Chendvankar’s design does not exemplify this principle well

3. Use life-cycle thinking in all engineering activities.
 * Chendvankar seems to have taken a traditional approach regarding the life-cycle of his design. No new techniques or ideas arose from the article for dealing with the driver after failure.

4. Ensure that all material and energy inputs and outputs are as inherently safe and benign as possible.
 * This principle does not apply to Chendvankar’s design as it is not meant for direct user interaction.

5. Minimize depletion of natural resources.
 * While the design attempts to address power concerns, and save natural resources, it also uses more components, and thus more resources. From studying the article, it appears that the extra costs incurred in resources outweigh the cost of the power saved with this driver.

6. Strive to prevent waste.
 * Similarly to green engineering design principal 3, the subject of preventing waste never arose in the article and the design does not address it. If anything, the additional circuitry would create more waste.

7. Develop and apply engineering solutions, while being cognizant of local geography, aspirations, and cultures.
 * This design principle does not apply to the design.

8. Create engineering solutions beyond current or dominant technologies, improve, innovate, and invent (technologies) to achieve sustainability.
 * Chendvankar attempts to create an engineering solution that improves upon an existing technology in an effort to achieve sustainability. He fails in this regard because of the specificity of its application, although his techniques are interesting and worth noting.

9. Actively engage communities and stakeholders in development of engineering solutions.
 * This principal was not covered in the article.

Conclusion
Chendvankar proposes an interesting idea to reduce power consumption in a relay driver although not entirely practical. The power saving capabilities of the circuit occurs only under specific circumstances. Many drawbacks of his design can influence these circumstances. Compounding this with the fact that very few applications could make use of such a driver, stemming from its unconventional power supply scheme, simply furthers its impracticality. Detailed explanations of the design drawbacks are presented in the article [1] under the section //Anoop’s Analysis//.