HEP requirements breakdown?

[Bjartmarr]

I seem to be having a hard time formulating this question in a way that makes sense, so please bear with me. On a typical Amtrak train, what percentage of HEP is consumed by each type of device? What percentage is used by climate control, lighting, galley, shower, wall outlets, etc?

Obviously this will change based on the type of train (LD/corridor) and outside temperature and type of lighting.

Is there any sort of smart power control? For example, if I were trying to design a power system, I might have the system turn off certain high-power non-time-critical devices (such as HVAC) during acceleration, and turn them on extra high during deceleration when power is going to waste.

I'm guessing that such technology wasn't available in the 1960's when HEP was being installed, but perhaps there have been efforts to retrofit it in.

 

[Guest]

I'll be surprised if anyone could provide you that detail of info. I also doubt that efficiency was ever a requirement in the overall design of HEP, since I am sure they felt they had a near infinite amount of power available.

Though, if you're interested in HEP, I'll mention you might find http://www.nwrail.com/interesting reading.

 

[ehbowen]

I don't know about smart power control, but an issue of Private Varnish had a technical article on HEP which mentioned that Amtrak-certified cars had to have a time delay, some random number between (IIRC) five and thirty seconds, so that all of the cars wouldn't come "on line" at the same time and trip breakers when power was applied to the system.