Welcome to the Arc Flash Forum! I thought I would provide a quick summary about how to use the Forum's Interface and about some of the features. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at: jphillips@brainfiller.com

Thanks for stopping by!
Jim Phillips a.k.a. "brainfiller"

Your Settings and Profile

All the settings and profile for your account can be accessed from the top right drop down, which will open if you move your mouse to your username. This is how it will look.

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Avatars

Avatars are small images which show up beside your forum username when you post and also in other places like your profile etc. We strongly encourage everyone to use an avatar as that demonstrates a good feel of community.

To use an Avatar, click on "Avatar" in your settings drop down. It will ask you to upload an image or use a "Gravatar". You may ignore the Gravatar option and simply upload any image you like.

Finding New Content

After the forum conversion, most content would be shown as New. If you would like to change that, you can click on the Mark Forums Read link at the top, below the navigation bar which will mark all content as having read by you. After that when you click on "What's New" in the navigation bar, it will only return new posts from that point forward.

Also, there is a Recent Activity Feed, located in the drop down on the Members Tab in top navigation bar. Recent activity, as the name suggests, shows what's going on recently on the site.

Posting Reply or New Thread

The Forum also has a Quick Reply box below all threads. You can click on "More Options" below quick reply box to go to the Advanced Reply editor.

To post a New Thread Topic, simple click on the "Post New Thread" button in the forum category where you want to start the new discussion.


Post Images or Attachments

While posting replies or creating a new Thread topic, you can upload any image or any document to attach it with the post, by clicking on the "Upload a File" button.

If you want to include an image in your post, which is uploaded somewhere else, you can click on the "Insert/Edit Image" button in the editor when posting. This will give you an option to provide the link to the image which you want to include.

Watch Threads

If a thread is important to you, you can click on "Watch Thread" above the first post at right side. This will give you an alert/email when there is a new reply to that thread.

Personal Conversations

If you would like to talk to any member privately, you can start a PM or Personal Conversation with the user. To do so, please click on the members name and click on "Start a Conversation".

Likes, Alerts and Follow

Made popular by Facebook, likes serve as an instant feedback by you to a post by another member. You will receive alerts when anyone likes your post or quotes your post and posts a reply to your thread. This way you can keep up with content that is relevant to you.

Follow is a feature which allows you to quickly find content/messages posted by members whose content you are interested in. You can open a members profile page and click on "follow". If you follow someone, you can click on "Your News Feed" again from your member drop down (by moving the mouse to the top right on your username, the drop down opens), and this will only show the latest content from people you follow.

Alternately you can also "ignore" someone if you never want to see any content from them.

Trophies

Trophies are points you collect when you have reached a certain activity level on the forum. The article system, where qualifying members can contribute articles to the site, is also tied to the Trophy points system.

Status Updates

If you are on a critical job or are performing an interesting arc flash study, let the community know! Status updates are Twitter style updates where you can post what you are upto currently. These can also be written from the member drop down at top right or from your own profile.

Privacy

Your privacy settings are located at http://www.arcflashforum.com/account/privacy

Again the privacy settings can also be accessed from the member drop down. You can decide who can see what you do on the forum here from those settings.

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I hope this guide proves helpful to new and old members in using the site better and if you have any questions post on this thread and I will try to answer them as best as I can.

Thank you Brainfiller, that was helpful.

Now I have a question where do I post it?
I'm a safety coord. and I would like to know if I have a 0 rating on the panel, does that rating change once I open the panel while it is still energized? What about de-energized. And does my PPE change from the 0 rating to to a 1 or higher?

I am project manager that is wrapping up a project at a municipal site and need to know if a arc study is required. We have 250kva transformer feeding several 480 panels. We at minimum will need to post stickers on each panel stating ppe is required?

Assuming you fall under OSHA at minimum you need to comply with all relevant OSHA regulations (see1910.333(a) as an example). The easiest way to accomplish this is to follow NFPA 70E which is an industry consensus standard. With a 250 kVA transformer feeding 480 V panels you definitely have potential for arc flash.

This is kinda in the wrong forum section but here is my answer.
You can use the tables in NFPA 70E as long as the parameters are met. The limitation is that the tables tend to be conservative and some engineering is needed to verify the parameters are met. The consensus of most people is to have a study done. Usually with a study you will not only get an arc flash hazard analysis but also short circuit and protection/coordination study also.
With a study, most of the time the PPE requirements are less than the NFPA tables and/or protective device settings can be adjusted to lower the arc flash hazard.
But another thought occurred to me is that are you asking if because it is a municipal site, it is exempt? The answer there is no.
Yes on the labels.