Frustrated in finding Electrical Power PE material

Aerofrank · Jun 28, 2010

Just wondering:

I really need the board members help. It's becoming extremely frustrating in finding the right material to study for the Electrical Power PE exam. Many people have said they've taken seminars to prepare for the exam;However I'm on a fixed income and can't afford to pay $600.00 to $1000.00 for Testmasters etc. Here is the only material I have in my possession that I can use:

1. Chelapati Electrical Power (Volume one)

2. Wildi Electrical Drives and Machines (Chapters 21 thru 23 on Power Electronics)

3. Electrical Engineering Review Manual (EERM), sixth edition

4. Schaums outline series (Power Systems Analysis)

5. Schaum's outline series (Electric Circuits)

6. Schaum's Outline series (Machines and Electromagnetics)

7. Grainger/Stevenson

ower Systems Analysis

8. NEC 2008 Code book

9. NCEES 2009 Test booklet (80 problems)

10.Handbook of Electrical Calculations, by Wayne Beaty.

11. Possible purchasing Kaplan 2009 power review problems (80).

I am planning on solving at least 406 problems and my study time total would be over 400 hrs.

1. If I study the material as shown above, would this be enough to effectively prepare for the

Power exam

2. Are the problems from the EERM, Schaum's, kaplan and Grainger etc, realistic practical

problems to prepare for the exam?

3. Can ayone recommend whre I can acquire other material (Practical Problems), to prepare for

the exam?

Like I said I'm on a fixed income (Semi-retired Engineer). Trying to study smarter as oppose to studying harder is becoming frustrating on my budget. Please anyone if you have any suggestions please post them and let me know if what material I have is applicable for this exam. Again thank you for your time.

Aerofrank

patelpe · Jun 28, 2010

Aerofrank said:
Just wondering:I really need the board members help. It's becoming extremely frustrating in finding the right material to study for the Electrical Power PE exam. Many people have said they've taken seminars to prepare for the exam;However I'm on a fixed income and can't afford to pay $600.00 to $1000.00 for Testmasters etc. Here is the only material I have in my possession that I can use:

1. Chelapati Electrical Power (Volume one)

2. Wildi Electrical Drives and Machines (Chapters 21 thru 23 on Power Electronics)

3. Electrical Engineering Review Manual (EERM), sixth edition

4. Schaums outline series (Power Systems Analysis)

5. Schaum's outline series (Electric Circuits)

6. Schaum's Outline series (Machines and Electromagnetics)

7. Grainger/Stevensonower Systems Analysis

8. NEC 2008 Code book

9. NCEES 2009 Test booklet (80 problems)

10.Handbook of Electrical Calculations, by Wayne Beaty.

11. Possible purchasing Kaplan 2009 power review problems (80).

I am planning on solving at least 406 problems and my study time total would be over 400 hrs.

1. If I study the material as shown above, would this be enough to effectively prepare for the

Power exam

2. Are the problems from the EERM, Schaum's, kaplan and Grainger etc, realistic practical

problems to prepare for the exam?

3. Can ayone recommend whre I can acquire other material (Practical Problems), to prepare for

the exam?

Like I said I'm on a fixed income (Semi-retired Engineer). Trying to study smarter as oppose to studying harder is becoming frustrating on my budget. Please anyone if you have any suggestions please post them and let me know if what material I have is applicable for this exam. Again thank you for your time.

Aerofrank

I think these material is more then enough. I have almost all the material except first two where I am using EERM by J. Camara. Can you tell chapter 21 thru 23 by Wildi cover which topics.

Kaplan example are harder and lenghty then the real exam.

Thanks,

Aerofrank · Jun 28, 2010

patelpe said:
Aerofrank said:

Just wondering:I really need the board members help. It's becoming extremely frustrating in finding the right material to study for the Electrical Power PE exam. Many people have said they've taken seminars to prepare for the exam;However I'm on a fixed income and can't afford to pay $600.00 to $1000.00 for Testmasters etc. Here is the only material I have in my possession that I can use:

1. Chelapati Electrical Power (Volume one)

2. Wildi Electrical Drives and Machines (Chapters 21 thru 23 on Power Electronics)

3. Electrical Engineering Review Manual (EERM), sixth edition

4. Schaums outline series (Power Systems Analysis)

5. Schaum's outline series (Electric Circuits)

6. Schaum's Outline series (Machines and Electromagnetics)

7. Grainger/Stevensonower Systems Analysis

8. NEC 2008 Code book

9. NCEES 2009 Test booklet (80 problems)

10.Handbook of Electrical Calculations, by Wayne Beaty.

11. Possible purchasing Kaplan 2009 power review problems (80).

I am planning on solving at least 406 problems and my study time total would be over 400 hrs.

1. If I study the material as shown above, would this be enough to effectively prepare for the

Power exam

2. Are the problems from the EERM, Schaum's, kaplan and Grainger etc, realistic practical

problems to prepare for the exam?

3. Can ayone recommend whre I can acquire other material (Practical Problems), to prepare for

the exam?

Like I said I'm on a fixed income (Semi-retired Engineer). Trying to study smarter as oppose to studying harder is becoming frustrating on my budget. Please anyone if you have any suggestions please post them and let me know if what material I have is applicable for this exam. Again thank you for your time.

Aerofrank

Click to expand...

I think these material is more then enough. I have almost all the material except first two where I am using EERM by J. Camara. Can you tell chapter 21 thru 23 by Wildi cover which topics.

Kaplan example are harder and lenghty then the real exam.

Thanks,

The chapters in the wildi book covers the following: Chapter 21, Power electronics, Chapter 22, Electronicc Control of DC motors, and chapter 23, electronic control of AC motors. Hope this helps

AeroFrank

pelaw · Jun 28, 2010

I passed with 3 out of 11 listed.

mtu_huskies · Jun 28, 2010

This does seem like more than enough materials already.

I passed with less books than this. Just keep working problems from these books and the pracitce exam and you'll be fine.

elmodeer · Jun 28, 2010

mtu_huskies said:
This does seem like more than enough materials already.
I passed with less books than this. Just keep working problems from these books and the pracitce exam and you'll be fine.

Congratulations. Which books did you use?

Thanks for the tips.

wilheldp_PE · Jun 28, 2010

Aerofrank said:
2. Are the problems from the EERM, Schaum's, kaplan and Grainger etc, realistic practical problems to prepare for the exam?

I didn't buy the EERM practice problems book, and didn't work anything else other than some of the example problems in the text. And I didn't have the Grainger book. But I can tell you for a fact that the Schaums and Kaplan problems are leagues harder than real exam questions. That being said, if you get to the point where you can work those problems quickly and correctly, you will be over-prepared for the exam.

pelaw · Jun 29, 2010

Aerofrank, I used EERM, NCEES Sample Power Exam, and NEC. I did not have any other books. But, from what I've seen, the Stevenson Grainger book appears to be a gem. I am thinking of purchasing just to have it for collection.

(I also used anything that was posted here on EB.)

mtu_huskies · Jun 30, 2010

elmodeer said:
mtu_huskies said:

This does seem like more than enough materials already.
I passed with less books than this. Just keep working problems from these books and the pracitce exam and you'll be fine.

Click to expand...

Congratulations. Which books did you use?

Thanks for the tips.

Here are the books I used.

Electric Machinery and Power System Fundamentals - Stephan Chapman

Electrical Machines Drives and Power Systems - Wildi

Power System Analysis - Grainger

Electric Power Systems - Nasas (Practice Problems)

A general engineering economics book from college written by one of my proffesors

NEC 2008 Handbook

NCEES Power Sample Questions and Solutions

Also a 3 ring binder of printed power calculations/equations

knight1fox3 · Jul 19, 2010

mtu_huskies said:
elmodeer said:

mtu_huskies said:

This does seem like more than enough materials already.
I passed with less books than this. Just keep working problems from these books and the pracitce exam and you'll be fine.

Click to expand...

Congratulations. Which books did you use?

Thanks for the tips.

Click to expand...

Here are the books I used.

Electric Machinery and Power System Fundamentals - Stephan Chapman

Electrical Machines Drives and Power Systems - Wildi

Power System Analysis - Grainger

Electric Power Systems - Nasas (Practice Problems)

A general engineering economics book from college written by one of my proffesors

NEC 2008 Handbook

NCEES Power Sample Questions and Solutions

Also a 3 ring binder of printed power calculations/equations

I used similar reference materials as well. Chapman, Wildi, Grainger/Stevenson, Handbook of Elec Power Calcs by H. Wayne Beaty, Power System Analysis by Hadi Saadat, and EC&M's Elec Calculations Handbook by John Paschal. Of those, I didn't find much help from the Grainger or Paschal book. Although, in another thread, someone suggested a previous version of the Grainger/Stevenson book when only Grainger was the author. I found and ordered a copy from Amazon. I felt the latest edition went into way more depth on certain concepts than was probably needed for the exam. I did not pass on my first attempt and will be re-taking the exam in Oct. I think one of my issues was not enough practice problems. Though I did NCEES completely and then again as a mock exam. I also did the Kaplan practice problems. Apparently this wasn't enough though. I'll probably do more problems from texts this time around and may take a review course.

benbo · Jul 20, 2010

Anybody who can get their hands on the Chelapati book would be wise to do so. Work through it carefully and methodically.

To me, power is miserable (I took ECC), but I bought this book years ago and loaned it to three separate colleagues, each of whom pulled up short the first time but came through after slogging through this thing.

cableguy · Jul 20, 2010

Ha, I love power, Computer architecture is miserable.

Granted, working for a power company puts food on my table.

I have yet to slog through the examples in the Chelapati book (I do own it), but it's really set up for the old style of long written exam, not the short burst ABCD exam. It does have some very good material in there though, stuff that's shown better than my other references.

knight1fox3 · Jul 20, 2010

benbo said:
Anybody who can get their hands on the Chelapati book would be wise to do so. Work through it carefully and methodically.
To me, power is miserable (I took ECC), but I bought this book years ago and loaned it to three separate colleagues, each of whom pulled up short the first time but came through after slogging through this thing.

cableguy said:
Ha, I love power, Computer architecture is miserable. Granted, working for a power company puts food on my table.
I have yet to slog through the examples in the Chelapati book (I do own it), but it's really set up for the old style of long written exam, not the short burst ABCD exam. It does have some very good material in there though, stuff that's shown better than my other references.

Thanks for the replies benbo and cableguy. I am certainly intrigued by this. Could either of you provide an ISBN on which book you are referring to or is it as simple as doing a Google search for "chelapati"?

cableguy · Jul 20, 2010

knight1fox3 said:
Thanks for the replies benbo and cableguy. I am certainly intrigued by this. Could either of you provide an ISBN on which book you are referring to or is it as simple as doing a Google search for "chelapati"?

You can get it here:

http://www.irvine-institute.org/pe_elect.htm

It's about $100. ISBN 0-942115-16-3 (for Electrical Volume 1). Is it worth $100? Tough call. If you already have good references, maybe, maybe not. Me, I budgeted a good amount for reference materials, so it was fine (my promotion depends on me passing the PE exam, which means more money... so I'll spend a little to make more).

I think it's a good reference with some good problems in it. For example, the section on paralleling transformers is good.

benbo · Jul 20, 2010

This is the guy who wrote it (not the poster, the guy at Irvine)^^^

The book I am familiar with is an old version, the was out of print for a while.

It is a big, blue covered paperback. Not sure if these have the same material.

You might check around used books first before buying one of these new ones. But if these new ones are of equal quality, they should be good.

cableguy · Jul 20, 2010

I bought mine from that link. The book is copyright 1993 and 2009. The print and typeface look old. What I think they did was take the original 1993 version, added some bits (not technical, more like "At Irvine Institute, we...") at the beginning and end of the book, and re-release it in 2009. As I mentioned, the problems inside are long and detailed. They're not the short, rapid-fire problems that I see in the NCEES practice exam. Solutions can go on for a page, 2, or 3. It's meaty stuff though.

I actually taped the front section and the back section of my Chelapati book closed. There's fluff in the front and fluff in the back, no need to even have that stuff flopping open while I'm going through the manual.

Asha · Jan 6, 2011

I want to thank everyone on this thread who recommended books to study from. I pretty much grabbed as many as I could and studied my heart out. I don't think there would have been any way for me to pass this exam (my second time around) without them. I thought the following books were the most helpful for the Power PE exam:

NCEES 2009 PE Electrical and Computer: Power Sample Questions and Solutions (Only one exam's worth of problems, but the only thing out there that gave me useful insight as to what the exam will be like and what areas I really need to improve in)
Wildi's Electrical Drives and Machines (Amazingly well written book - very easy to understand! The most useful chapters were on Power Electronics)
NEC 2008 Code Book (I tabbed the hell out of this book, especially tables and sections that were needed to solve problems in the NCEES test booklet above)
Chapman's Electric Machinery and Power System Fundamentals (It made T-lines, Power Flow Studies, and Faults much easier to understand).
Grainger & Stevenson's Power System Analysis (Much less user friendly version of the above, but more in depth).
Camara's Electrical Engineering Reference Manual, for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam, 7th ed. (Bought for the first time around, useful chapters were on Illumination, Economics, and Lightning Protection)
Milton's Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Basic Electricity (Seriously back to basics, but it has good chapters on Batteries and Measuring Instruments)
Beaty's Handbook of Electric Power Calculations (I had access to the ebook version of this, which I printed out and bound it in a giant three ring binder to take to the exam with me. It's a densely written book with small font, making it somewhat difficult to find what I needed right away, but I was glad to have it as it has equations I couldn't find in my other books.)
I'm iffy about adding both Schaum's Outline of Electric Machines & Electromechanics and Schaum's Outline of Electrical Power Systems to this list. I took both books with me and used them for the exam, but I have to say that neither book was useful in making me understand the workings of electric machines or power systems. The books' author (Syed Nasar) condensed the subject matter to a point where it was like reading a list of equations. Also, there are numerous typos in each of the books, a few of which are noted here. I suggest these books be used in conjunction with a textbook.

I hope this list helps others. I found a lot of these books in my local libraries and online. I think the only books that I bought were the NCEES test booklet, 2008 NEC Code Book, and the EERM, so there are ways that you can get the books you need cheaply. Also, these books do not cover every topic in the exam subject outline, so scouring the internet and this forum for helpful downloads was the way I went in filling knowledge gaps.

Good luck everyone with your exam prep!!!

harsha · Jan 9, 2011

I passed the P.E power first time for October 2010.

I am planning to sell the following. If interested hit me up at [email protected]

1.P.E. Electrical License Review Manuals ,2nd Edition by C.V. Chelapati, Ph.D., P.E., - Volume I and II – $ 119.95

Reviews (http://engineerboards.com/lofiversion/index.php/t14220.html)

2.My order details when I bought this package last year:

Items In Your Order

Code Description Unit Price Quantity Subtotal

EPN4 Electrical PE Power Package (EPN4) $410.75 1 $410.75

Subtotal: $410.75

Handling: $3.50

Shipping: $0.00

Order Total: $414.25

The package includes the following:

• Power Reference Manual for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam (EPRM)

• Power Practice Problems for the Electrical and Computer PE Exam (EPRP)

• NCEES Power Sample Questions and Solutions (NCPEEP)

• Electrical Engineering Sample Examinations for the Power, Electrical and Electronics, and Computer PE Exams (EESX3), 3rd Edition

I bought it for $414. I am willing to sell it for $ 319.95 .

I will sell both for $ 439.95.

eldoradohills · Jan 9, 2011

elmodeer said:
mtu_huskies said:

This does seem like more than enough materials already.
I passed with less books than this. Just keep working problems from these books and the pracitce exam and you'll be fine.

Click to expand...

Congratulations. Which books did you use?

Thanks for the tips.

My suggestion : if you can go through all problems in Chelapati, you'll be at least 80% covered (I solved this book twice thorughly). For Power electtronics, I read "Power electronics, circuits.devices/and applications" By Muhammad H. Rashid". I bough the PPI's power ref manual, but didn't read at all. Just eye balled through the topics and you dont need this book. If you know anyone, just copy the "Illumination" section, I could answer 3-4 questions in the exam from here. Besides, you have to solve NCEES sample test, that is a must ! Also cover "engineering economics" from anywhere you like. If time allows, solve more problems like Schaum's series etc, I bought that, but dudn't have time.........oh forgot, I got both email and post mail on 7th (Friday evening) and at the first time

ASSED2: thanks everyone one this board, I got all the valuable tips in this board ! ......GLA

VectrenEng · Jan 11, 2011

On a budget, I recommend sources on the Internet. You can make quite a reference using a 3-ring binder.

From your list, I used #3, 7, 8, and 9. I intentionally avoided Kaplan and always recommend against using it. I also used the accompanying PPI books.

If you can find it, a great reference is the Westinghouse Transmission and Distribution book, copyright 1964. I inherited one from my previous cube owner, and it is excellent. It may be available through ABB now (not sure of the price though).

Good luck!

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