Demoh
Member
- 217
- 26
- 18
- Location
- St Pete, FL
Heres a laugh for you guys regarding generators for the stuff I see in the field. Purely entertainment purposes, 1 story from this weekend and 1 from a while ago.
So my company recently took over an account a week before the holidays. A skilled nursing facility. Ive been onsite there averaging 16 hrs per day since friday but I did get to talk to the plant ops guy there.
I started picking the plant ops guy's brain over a few days to see how smart this guy was so I could recommend to the new owners of the building (my client) if this guy needs to be replaced or not. (IT guy which ive already felt out was there too.) Started asking about the generator. He started off saying its way oversized and runs about 20% load.... He must have noticed I was visibly agitated by that statement because he very quickly cut me off and said he gets it load banked once a year.
After explaining what wet stacking was to the oblivious IT guy who already knows me as macgyver and he went off to do his own thing, I found out that AHCA (the authority on any medical building, they are worse than the fire marshall in terms of being d%@@# about the stupidest codes,) wants a weekly UNLOADED 5 minute test of the generator systems....
Wait what? 5 minute? unloaded? wtf.... Well the plant ops guy said what they want is BS and he just marks the test down as successful even though he refuses that test... he started just ignoring that after having an argument with the AHCA inspector about the issue and that a 5 minute unloaded test doesnt do squat... Sure it tests that the engine starts... doesnt say it carries a load or that the switchgear is operational.
At least the plant ops guy here knows his stuff... I havent found anything that I strongly disagree with yet. AHCA on the other hand... Im not allowed to place a permanent object powered by 120v under any form of sprinkler system which includes a sprinkler pipe. So a pipe with no junctions, Tees, etc... which has virtually no chance of leaking runs through my communication room I cant put my telco racks that have switches routers and servers under ANY portion of this pipe? I can understand a sprinkler head or junction because any joint can leak, but really? a solid pipe? Oh but if I put a drop ceiling up so it hides the pipe it is completely fine to place my racks under it now... I asked him after the inspection and all 4 inspectors agreed. (heck, during my inspection he almost got a plumb bob and string out but I stopped him and told him I already did that and the permanent marker line on the floor was the outer edge of the sprinkler pipe.
So thats my AHCA story. I do have another where I had a guy down for Irma wanting to run to spend thousands of dollars on home depot generators to run his dry cleaning plant.... Every bit of their operations was 208 Y with every motor being 3 phase... having 40 drycleaning stores run through 1 plant I can see how he was desperate, but I was doing what I could keeping his 20kw fueled over the 8 days they were without power. (their boiler and air compressor is about 140hp combined and gen was only sized for the server room and some lightweight drycleaning equipment.).... 2 or so years ago when they were getting a new service put in they were popping the main breaker of a 500kW generator they rented for a few days every 2 hours. They ended up torching one leg of their 1600 amp transfer switch (contacts) but the tripping continued after direct connection. The time they rented the 500kW was before this guy's employment or else he might have known better.
So my company recently took over an account a week before the holidays. A skilled nursing facility. Ive been onsite there averaging 16 hrs per day since friday but I did get to talk to the plant ops guy there.
I started picking the plant ops guy's brain over a few days to see how smart this guy was so I could recommend to the new owners of the building (my client) if this guy needs to be replaced or not. (IT guy which ive already felt out was there too.) Started asking about the generator. He started off saying its way oversized and runs about 20% load.... He must have noticed I was visibly agitated by that statement because he very quickly cut me off and said he gets it load banked once a year.
After explaining what wet stacking was to the oblivious IT guy who already knows me as macgyver and he went off to do his own thing, I found out that AHCA (the authority on any medical building, they are worse than the fire marshall in terms of being d%@@# about the stupidest codes,) wants a weekly UNLOADED 5 minute test of the generator systems....
Wait what? 5 minute? unloaded? wtf.... Well the plant ops guy said what they want is BS and he just marks the test down as successful even though he refuses that test... he started just ignoring that after having an argument with the AHCA inspector about the issue and that a 5 minute unloaded test doesnt do squat... Sure it tests that the engine starts... doesnt say it carries a load or that the switchgear is operational.
At least the plant ops guy here knows his stuff... I havent found anything that I strongly disagree with yet. AHCA on the other hand... Im not allowed to place a permanent object powered by 120v under any form of sprinkler system which includes a sprinkler pipe. So a pipe with no junctions, Tees, etc... which has virtually no chance of leaking runs through my communication room I cant put my telco racks that have switches routers and servers under ANY portion of this pipe? I can understand a sprinkler head or junction because any joint can leak, but really? a solid pipe? Oh but if I put a drop ceiling up so it hides the pipe it is completely fine to place my racks under it now... I asked him after the inspection and all 4 inspectors agreed. (heck, during my inspection he almost got a plumb bob and string out but I stopped him and told him I already did that and the permanent marker line on the floor was the outer edge of the sprinkler pipe.
So thats my AHCA story. I do have another where I had a guy down for Irma wanting to run to spend thousands of dollars on home depot generators to run his dry cleaning plant.... Every bit of their operations was 208 Y with every motor being 3 phase... having 40 drycleaning stores run through 1 plant I can see how he was desperate, but I was doing what I could keeping his 20kw fueled over the 8 days they were without power. (their boiler and air compressor is about 140hp combined and gen was only sized for the server room and some lightweight drycleaning equipment.).... 2 or so years ago when they were getting a new service put in they were popping the main breaker of a 500kW generator they rented for a few days every 2 hours. They ended up torching one leg of their 1600 amp transfer switch (contacts) but the tripping continued after direct connection. The time they rented the 500kW was before this guy's employment or else he might have known better.