brian john

These pictures were taken last summer. When I arrived at the job there was this awful noise coming from the electric room, the electrical contractor that called us, wanted to know if he should open the main switch? I told him we should wait and let the utility open the Network Protectors in the street.

We removed the defective Bolted Pressure Switch (Pringle), installed a GE HPC with GFP on a cart with line load DLO cable and hypressed connectors, cleaned and meggered the service and restored power. Installed a new Bolted Pressure Switch and new GFP several weeks later.

Oh and of course we/the inspector/building owner made the restaurant owner fix the leaking pipe above the switchgear, IMMEDATLY prior to restoring power, later the offending water pipe was relocated out of the electric room.

MDShunk

Nice pictures.

Say, that's a genuine Pringle brand "Pringle switch". Neat.

What sort of work area protection measures to you normally take when you've got a temporary breaker rigged up on a cart while you wait for parts to arrive? I suspect that this could run into days or weeks. Portable fencing and signs? Lock the doors to the room with your own padlock? Lots of rubber matting and rope?

brian john

NOT ENOUGH.

We Lock the room, tag it with access to be by Us Only, after testing* and prior to energizing we try to avoid anyone entering the room. We blanket the equipment. Any entry into the room to close any load switches if necessary are completed by a suited employee.

We megger everything we can and only energize when the readings are acceptable, we test the new GFP and DLRO/micro-ohm all connections and contacts.

MDShunk

Just wondering. Not trying to stir anything up.

From a practical and economic standpoint, an electrical contractor often needs to scab in temporary gear to get the operation back up while replacements are on the way. In the case of obsolete equipment, I suspect that new sections of equipment sometimes need fabricated from field measurements. This is one of those things that sometimes you just "gotta do", even if there's no good way to make it super-safe. Just wondering if you had a protocol in place, or if you just made the best effort possible on a case-by-case basis.

brian john

It is a best effort on a case by case...Getting the inspectors to go along is getting harder and harder, wanting engineered drawings, wondering if a GE switch can go in an ITE board even on a temporary basis. What usually helps is most of our clients are large property owners with some clout.

Pierre Belarge

Bryan
What are those items in the second picture that look like small vented boxes -below the fuses?

What kind of camera are you using for the pics?

brian john

Pierre: Those are arc chutes, when the switch opens under load or fault these break up/ disperse the arc.

I was using a Pentax OPTIO 4.9 megapixels, This is my fishing camera, as it can be dropped in water and still operate (per Pentax), I have not dropped it yet.

This morning I just purchased a Nikon 10.2 megapixel DSLR. I can't wait to try it out, though in high humidity environments I'll still utilize the Pentax.

frank

Under 'only by me' entry conditions I am certified to issue Permits to Work. They are posted at the entry to a 'safety area'. These are legal documents defering liability to myself and those under my control. Any fool daft enough to enter a safety banded area cannot therefore expect to come into the money if they do something foolish. We find though that safety tapes are broken from time to time and the usual explanation is ' sorry. I didn.t see them. Duh!!!

Frank

brian john

Frank this is litigious America, that document might show your heart was in the right place, but their lawyer would twist it into a document of the devil.