Friday, September 30, 2011
Energy saving kit improperly installed in Exit sign almost causes a Fire
Once again we have a case of a Company which is suppose to be in the Life Safety Business putting a customer life at risk.This time it happened at my Dentist in Monroeville Pa. who co owns a building with an accountant. The Monroeville Code Enforcement officer was by recently to check the building and found several exit signs not working properly so Doc asked if I could fix them for him sure I said they make these new energy efficient LED Light kits about $25.00 each you can retrofit your signs with to save money instead of the 2- 40 watt bulbs they use now.
Well it ends up I open up the signs and what do I find in them but that the big Pittsburgh based
Fire Extinguisher and emergency lighting company he has used in the past had in fact installed retrofit kits which at time cost $135.00 each had been improperly installed and had burned out and almost caught on fire because the idiot installer left one of the 40 watt incandescent bulbs
in one of the sockets which made contact with the back of the kit and burned the LED Kit out and damaged the exit signs. The structure it self could have caught fire had the breaker not tripped out when the heat caused the insulation to burn off the wires and make contact with the grounded metal case. Had the case not been properly grounded or had it been made of all plastic like most new ones or had the breaker failed to trip the structure it self could have caught fire.
Well I installed the new kits( top left) and got the signs working again ( Top Right ) for Doc. Who is extremely upset with the way he was treated by the Fire Extinguisher company. Unfortunately this is a matter of fact around Pittsburgh and most of the country these so called Life Safety , Fire and Security company's hire the lowest common denominator they can find that they can pay a buck or two above minimum to go out and do mundane work and they can care less if the work is even done right they just keep billing big amounts for work half done and can care less. this is why you must do your home work when hiring life safety company's to do your work or you could literally end up burned.
Shame on these company's who do this kind of work.
A very sad comment on the Life Safety Community.
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