Thank you Ditek for making excellent Surge protection devices

Well they had some fun the other morning early down at Holy Family Institute an Emsworth Pa. based facility that works with At Risk Youth and Families.
It seems the heavens sent a message in the way of a Lightning Strike. Which hit the St. Marys Group Home which was vacant at the time. The fire alarm system was damaged and will need replaced and a surge was sent thru the wiring which connects all the buildings fire and safety systems but this time instead of having to replace several fire systems we needed to only replace 1 fire panel and some multiplex modules, thanks to the good folks at Ditek Corporation www.ditekcorp.com
based in Largo Florida and an area which knows all about lightning as it is the world capital for it.
After the last major lightning strike about 7 years ago destroyed over $10,000.00 in equipment
I convinced the administration to install Ditek's products all around the campus on the fire/ safety communications wires which cost about $700.00 and I also installed main panel surge protection from Square D on the group homes breaker panels. the result is under $2000.00 in damage and no fires which is a real possibility when dealing with direct lightning strikes. Many homes have caught fire due to this in the area. While no surge protector can stop all damage when theirs a direct strike as you can see it did greatly limit it. So good job Ditek Corporation and keep up the good work. I have replaced the surge protectors and within 2 hours the whole campus was back up online . When choosing and installing surge protectors be sure to make sure you follow all instructions and make sure you have good solid grounding or they will not work properly also choose the protector based on what you are protecting so it will quickly clamp and remove the surge. there are surge suppressors available for all types of low and high voltage equipment. And Holy Family is one of my many Institutional customers who understands the value of protecting there property and children in there care.

Why early alarm systems where easy to defeat due to laziness

You see here remnants of an early Ademco
combination Burglar and Fire alarm System which was installed around 1972 at an old J&L Steel Service Center in Pa. now having been re-purposed several times over. By the then W.J. Burns International Detective agency's alarm division
It consisted of door switches foil tape to detect glass breakage and several Smoke Detectors .

Burns eventually got out of the alarm business in Pittsburgh in late 70's and sold there accounts to Holmes Protection Services here in Pittsburgh . The Holmes division here in Pittsburgh was run by two relatives so poorly and had lost so many accounts that it was sold to Westec which became Vector Security. Holmes eventually was folded into ADT and Burns was sold to Pinkerton all of which is now under Securitus .

The above key station was made by Ademco the white light when lighted indicated all circuits where closed and system could be armed the red light indicated the system was armed this key station was intended to only be used indoors as it had no tamper switch to secure a burglar from removing it from the wall and shorting the key switch terminals and there by shutting off the alarm.
But as usual you can see this one sitting on an outside wall and no tamper switch behind it. burglar simply removes it and shorts it and $1,000,000.00 in equipment sits inside ready to be stolen.
Now you would think an alarm company would be concerned about this.
and use the correct outdoor rated and tampered station.
No never going to happen you see there are too many alarm company's that hire the least common denominator they can find pay them as little as possible to install and service it and specify cheapest way to put system in so they can make the most off of you it happens today it happened back then as well . I always used tampered switch plates out side but apparently most did not. Many many systems where defeated this exact way in 70's and 80's till delay circuits allowed the keys and keypads to be installed inside eliminating the threat.
Back then to Burglar alarm bells in Tampered enclosures where used and many of them also never had there tamper circuits hooked up as well just climb up open cabinet and cut wires or knock it off the wall with a brick. cut phone lines your in.

Well your sitting there why did they not put a simple plate in to protect the customer and prevent a lawsuit to the alarm company? Well you see there in the paper work you sign when you purchase an alarm system is what is known as a Exculpatory Clause or hold harmless as its known. Even if a company does a horrible job like you see here and everything in the plant gets stolen you can not sue the alarm company because you signed away your right to sue and since alarm company knows it can not be sued why should they give a good damn what they do for you. Sorry but that is the truth too many alarm company's are only interested in thinning your wallet not protecting your property they prove it every day with the free alarms and inflated monitoring fees. They scream at there workers for even considering spending one nickel more of material than what at bare minimum is needed .
Thats why when considering a system choose very wisely.

Its time Horn/Strobe Boosters have built in Trouble sounders

Its bad enough when you have to service a Fire System you are not familiar with but to then have a Bell 1 or 2 trouble on the loop which supply s power to the Bell Horns and Strobes this can be a real night mare.
It all started when the American with Disabilities Act required Fire alarms to include clear flashing Strobe Lights . Fire Alarms could no longer support pushing out power to horns and bells plus now strobe lights so independant supervised Power Boosters where developed to solve the problem. They do the job well when properly installed but one big problem is after they are in for several years the back up batteries need replaced . When this condition occurs a trouble signal is generated to the main fire panel and if the booster is right beside it no problem pop in new batteries and away you go but what if it is located else where and not clearly visiable like installed above a cieling now what do you do? Thats right get out the ladders and flashlights and start looking and spend sometimes 4 or more hours looking for it because the people who installed the booster violated NFPA72 by not marking in the main panel where the booster is located.Given the fact not all booster boxes are red they can be any color can lead to an even more exhaustive search.
Now why could manufacturers not put a simple little .50 cent piezeo sounder in the panel you can silence with a push button like the 2 line fire dialer s currently have ?
Stupidity as usual never ever take into account some one needs to service this unit let alone the least common denominator installers company's use who could care less if they even install fire systems properly and you can see this can be a real problem.

False Alarm leads to False Arrest

For one unfortunate individual having a prior criminal conviction and living in a Personal Care Home in a northern suburb of Pittsburgh Pa..had some bad consequences when a fire alarm system started falsing and instead of the fire dept silencing the alarm and immediately calling me to come and check it and find the problem instead they reset it and ended up coming back several more times till fire dept chief got mad and had this resident arrested for causing a false alarm by pulling and activating the manual pull station on the system and since the care home is full of individuals who suffer from Bi polar and other psychotic conditions getting some one they do not like out of the home was easy by lying to the fire chief as to who set the alarm off.
Unfortunately though it never happened a station was never pulled.As you can clearly see all the dust around the hex key you must remove.

The Problem started in the early morning when the first fire alarm went off the fire dept should have silenced the system and then had home owner call me to reset and fix it the problem being with conventional analog systems unless a pull station has been activated you need to see which detector is in alarm by looking for a locked in red LED light or an activated pull station which is clearly different looking than when it is in its normal state.
well they did not do this they reset system and I receive no phone call several more false alarms again I get no phone call. Hello who is in charge of the situation? after the 3rd alarm the old panel is now going bonkers and it looks like a pull station was pulled. Wrong only way a pull station in this situation would have been pulled is the panel would not reset all pull stations lock into position and need to be manually reset with a key or opened with an Allen wrench and reset which in this case never happened. So no pull station was ever pulled,because the panel reset.
What did I find after going down and resetting system and have it go off 10 minutes later was a bad smoke detector in bedroom 14# occupied by a sweet old lady who sleeps all day
I changed the smoke detector and arranged the next day to update the panel with a new panel
as the old panel was slowly dying and needed replaced and with the new panel and features future problems will be avoided.

But we are still back to the original problem. Why did I never get a phone call till after so many false alarms especially when my phone number is in the front of the panel why did no one from fire dept call. Like I say the fire service is its own enemy and this case proves it. I have told this fire company repeatedly to call me if there is a problem it is written on the panel if there is a problem to silence alarm and call me . Why was this man arrested for pulling an alarm he could not have pulled? Again who is in charge ?a simple phone call would have stopped all of went on that night and day but no one calls till after 10 false alarms. and the fact my number is clearly written on panel.

Always with older conventional fire alarms silence them then call servicing company so a tech can be dispatched and problem found. The rest of the system will keep protecting till the tech gets there as other zones stay active,
do not keep resetting it.
I do this in many community's and I never have problems there . Yes this dept is volunteer if your wondering and maybe different people responded at different times but why was I not called? Other dept. call me and the hassle is avoided.
Why was common sense not used in this situation?
Instead an innocent man sits in county jail for weekend as I try to get hold of those responsible for the arrest and have him released.

Will common sense ever prevail in the Fire Service apparently not in this dept .
which continues to be its own worse enemy and blame the problem on the fire system instead of using common sense and picking up a phone.

Of course this is not the whole story the dirty little secret here in Pa. is most Personnel care homes are used to house the mentally Ill who otherwise would have been at institutions like
Dixmont, Woodville and Mayview and Western Center which where torn down and these homes replace and while the vast majority of homes in Allegheny county are excellent places for them to stay in a safe and functional environment outside Allegheny county like in Washington county the homes are total hell holes how they are kept. Like I said Pa's dirty little secret

Who has the Knox box Key?

This is what is known as a Knox box a very sturdy built box used by fire Dept's so they can get the keys they need to get into a structure and find out what is causing the fire alarm to go off with out having to break down the door to the business.or wait for an authorized key holder to respond.
The boxes are often times tied to an alarm system as well to warn when they are opened.
The keys to open these boxes are carried on certain fire vehicles and some times access to the keys is only possible on the vehicle when a dispatcher sends a radio tone to release it from a special lock box. each community's boxes uses a key made for that community only.
The system works very well. Well that is except for where I live in Penn Hills Pa. seems one of the firefighters who was suppose to return the keyring to the Knox box failed to do so and took it home with him/her I found this out when testing the fire system at a shopping plaza when the Fire Marshal came to do the test and opened the box only to find the keys gone. Since no one would admit to taking the keys my customer spent $600.00 to re-key the plaza. So while it is a very good idea it has its flaws . I would like to see it made so it could not be locked back up unless the keys are reinserted this would stop the problem of this happening .

Keeping Machinery Cool and Safe

With the high temps of summer comes the constant problem of
keeping industrial equipment operating safely to prevent break downs and possible injury to plant personnel.
Most motors and electrical and electronic equipment is meant to be operated at less than 100 degrees so when temps start climbing into the high 90's motors and control boards are being pushed to there maximum safe operating capacity as the temperatures with in equipment cabinets can get well over 200
degrees F.
The most common way to deal with the heat is to install vents and fans to pull air thru the cabinets but when the plant air is near 100 degrees all your doing is moving hot air.
So what can be done when temps start causing problems.

solution 1 # buy equipment which can handle the higher temps but this can be as much as 3-4 times normal costs

Solution 2# install ac its to cool plant again expensive and not always practical

Solution 3# Install compressed air powered cabinet coolers also known as venturri systems cool compressed air is pushed into the cabinet thru a small plastic tube and hot air is pushed out thru the top of the cabinet. thru a muffler looking device. This air exchange works better than fans because the air coming from the compressor is much cooler allowing the cabinets to run 50 or more degrees cooler than ambient air. I recently installed a system made by Ex-air for a oil servicing company which recycles oil for large scale customers and the cost of aprox $600.00 a cabinet has more than paid off in preventing break downs and energy savings as the equipment operates more efficiently.
have a tough cooling problem look into these systems.