Simple Surge Suppressors often provided and not being installed on Card Access Systems Spells Big Trouble in the future

If you buy a  Card Access control unit from the major manufacturers like Honeywell  they often provide right in the kit a set of special surge suppressors  you place across the lock and the access units releasing contacts  to prevent the surge that is created when the magnetic field collapses when a mag lock or solenoid lock
 d energizes.
 Failure to install these surge suppressors which cost about $20.00 a set will lead  eventually  to the early failure of the lock and and control unit. Yet when I service Card Access units put in by others I rarely ever find them being used ,even when they are provided right in the kit. Honeywell / Northern  provides them with every Vista Key Starter Kit  and Net Axcess 123 Kit  as you can see in Cut sheet provided with the controls in picture bellow .

Why Technician and installers do not use them is shear laziness  but also in some cases they want problems so they can come out and charge you an excessive amount of money to fix it. That's why so many company's do not use surge suppressors and UPS units etc or hook up grounds properly so you the end user have to pay for service calls and then all these same company's and there techs wonder why I have grown my business with high end customers its not that I am cheaper its because I provide good service with excellent installs to prevent future problems and that includes surge protection. Properly installed  and maintained only service needed on Card Access is replacing solenoid lock after 10 years of heavy use  and battery's every 5 years.

Surge suppressor  installed on main unit 

ADA Regulations on counter Height putting Store clerks lives at risk when there is no clear place to hide Panic Buttons

Yes it is nice that they have lowered counter heights to serve the Disabled and Handicapped  but in too many cases it has caused another issue to develop which could put that store clerks life at risk during a hold up or other criminal intent.

As you can see in the above picture right under the counter top  next to place the clerk stands is a small white recessed button box with black button   . This is a silent Panic / Hold Up button and while this counter has a partition so you can not see clerk hit the button .
But on too many counters there is no partition or other way to block some one from seeing clerk hit the button because the counter top is too low and the taller the clerk the harder it is to get to and hit the button and not be seen. Yes there are Bait bills you pull and foot pedals and wireless pendants you carry  but there all  fallible and cause false alarms  when floor is mopped or cash register drawer puled or worked on or battery on wireless go dead or clerk walks out and forgets to leave unit for next clerk  so this is  something you do not want .
The plain old recessed button has proven to be false alarm resistant and helped save many lives . But now the most effective method we have to protect clerks is no longer viable at stores counters in too many cases .
Because of ADA height rules particularly in fast food stores. Hopefully something will come on the market to overcome this problem  but till then clerks are at risk.
But once again common sense has been ruled out and some genius who did some supposed study this is what needs to be to accommodate the handicapped has caused an even bigger problem.
and another major law suit waiting to happen.

Providing 480 Volt 3 Phase power to a design build project where only 230 volt 3 Phase is avalable

Electrician friend of mine referred me to one of his friends a semi retired electrician who has been getting involved with industrial electrical power jobs and who needed my skill set with help in a few projects at a plant he is installing power for some new equipment  where they make all kinds of organic soaps and lotions.
One of the problems the plant was having was getting enough hot water to fill kettles of 300 to 1000 gallons  of water at temperatures as high as 160 F  degrees .While Joe is a very skilled residential and Commercial electrician he was not as familiar with motor controls and transformers as I am  so I agreed to help him and Joe has picked up some pointers along the way as we have worked on several major projects ,including installing a Rotary Phase converter  to make 3 phase 230 volts out of 230 single phase at the plant auxiliary building .

Converter in process of being wired 

Capacitors used to balance load 

After getting together with the Professional Engineer the plant hired he wanted to be able to run an instantaneous pulsed water heater  that needed 480 volts 3 phase at 200 amps the problem the 480 volt  3 phase delta  available  was being provided by a step up transformer  from a 1200 amp  230 volt 3 phase delta  service and was already at its maximum use So we would have to come up with a way to determine if we either had to install a new service or copy what was already in place. After a complete examination of the power system and its use we determined we could put in  another step up transformer as well.

Transformer in process of being wired 

We chose a special designed transformer from Eaton Corp that is specifically designed to do step up duty but the problem is stepping up  power from 230 to 480 means we would need more than the 200 amps 480 volts required because to step voltage up you need to feed in approx 1 -1/2 to  twice what you need so on this case we feed the transformer with  400 amps of 230 volt to insure we would not have a voltage drop and we up sized by one size all wiring .
Joe had his relatives who work with him do the heavy work  and I made all the connections etc. to make sure they where done properly one wrong connection could result in serious damage to equipment and any one near by it could be injured when we tested it .

We got the Transformer and heater in place  in preparation for adding on the pump and Variable Speed Drive  and control panel I would have to build to control the pump.

Since the Drive unit for pump was not included in the heater package I then had to build a  water resistant  set up for the pump controller which allowed it to be viewed and I found a perfect enclosure with view window for the job to allow it  and the building of the switch control stay water proof  .

Control ready for labeling 

 cabinet allows  drive LED output to be viewed 

The VFD Pump Drive the Engineer selected from Baldor  allowed for many options and we found the perfect set up which allows for 4 different speed settings as well as a maximum speed setting which can easily be run by employees by just adjusting a couple switches instead of having to do complicated programming each  time of the VFD  like they have to with other units they purchased .
 We set the unit up and I ran the initial programming and then tweaked it as engineer stood by and observed the settings to see how much water at what temperature was coming out .
The engineer also designed in an auxiliary water flow monitor which will allow employees to set how many gallons they need  I wired in to automatically shut off pump to prevent over filling. We had to do this work over a series of Saturdays  so as to not disrupt normal production in the plant and we had to observe
GMP practices for sanitation purposes to insure no products would get contaminated by what we did '

http://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/goodmanufacturingpracticegmpguidelinesinspectionchecklist/default.htm

This  included wearing  lab clothing and hair nets  and making sure we carefully cleaned up after ourselves and make sure no stray wire pieces etc got into equipment. This was a very demanding job but in the end it all worked just as engineer designed it  and we wired it  and we have several more projects to complete.

Discount Store selling expired Fire Extinguishers and Powder Actuated tools which require a license a very common problem items in stores and Flea Markets that should not be there.

I was in  Koppel Beaver county when I had some time to kill between jobs and stopped at a discount store which has all the usual crappy stuff from China   and some used tools etc. when my eyes came across a dozen boxes of Flame out Foam Fire Extinguishers. marked $3.99 a piece these units normally go for $20.00 retail so they would have been a deal had they not been expired  in 10/08 .

Needless to say the store owner could care less they still can be trusted there still sealed ?
Really ! sorry the answer is no.
 Yes they may very well work but there almost a decade old and when it comes to your life on the line do you want   to trust them.
Since there was no local AHJ to notify I contacted the manufacturer who will hopefully follow thru and get them off the shelf.
While I was there also they had used Hilti Powder Actuated Fastener guns which should only be sold to those 21 years old and to use them on the job requires a special license and training .
Needless to say had I looked harder there would have been other items as well they should not be selling but that's the problem these discount stores and Flea markets have very little regulation and AHJ  are slow or never ever get involved in what is being carried and sold including illegal switch blades, Recalled products  and other dangerous items  despite there being laws against selling such things .
Unless individuals like my self get involved  and get it stopped it just continues. When it comes to knives and guns , veterans grave markers etc police will some times get involved but often times are hesitant.
The result people get injured regularly by items they never should have had access to in the first place. The persons selling can face stiff fines and penalty's but it usually does not happen till some on gets hurt and there's an investigation.  Which is a dam shame but the truth.  Before you by something used do your due diligence and research the item and make sure to check for labels etc so you are not buying something illegal or expired or recalled.

Not using proper Filters results in severe damage to Oil Pump and Heater for company

I have a  large Oil Company  that provides field lubrication services I work for and have designed and built  numerous pumps and heater set ups for them they use in the field to do Hot oil flushes to clean out newly installed piping and for the recycling ,recovery and cleaning  of dirty oil   for large industrial clients like Natural Gas Pumping Stations and Electric Power Plants. I got a call late one morning  from one of the crews working on their latest job there on a $30 Million Gas Compression facility under construction in West Virginia where they are doing a Hot Oil Flush to clean out pipes after they have been installed and  joints welded .

Typical gas plant piping  that gets flushed after its installed 

Seems they are having trouble with 2 of the elements on the 3 element  480 volt-3 Phase - 90 amp- 800 Lb   Heater I designed.
 When the tech on site tells me whats going on and gives me readings he is getting from his meters  it sounds bad .
So I get to the Oil Company  office/ plant  fire up a  company  1 ton 4x4 pickup  which I will need to get back into this very rural area and fuel it up along with auxiliary tank and  load it with another back up heater and enough tools and fittings to get them back up and running plus survival gear pack god forbid I should get stuck overnight on the road always a possibility when travelling back roads in bad winter weather .
After 4 hours I am on site  its bad there already running a week behind schedule and can not get oil up to 160 degrees it needs to be to properly flush.
After looking over the heater for sure the elements that cost $750.00 a piece are shot.
Not going to be a good day.
We had two options empty all the equipment off  the truck pull trucks beside each other get an onsite crane/forklift  to lift the units on and off trucks or try and rebuild it on the truck. I opted for option 1#
We opened up the heaters top element to find it destroyed and melted.

We also find jammed in the heater  outlet a piece of what looks like window screening and plenty of rocks and debris ,which stopped the flow of oil which allowed elements to overheat .
This would not have happened had they been paying attention to the pump as it was defiantly giving indications there was a problem along with pressure gauge.They had already damaged a pump the week before when a rock got in the impeller and damaged it because they where not paying attention  .
When we opened the filter unit on output of heater we found the filter units which used that screening material had been ripped apart by the rocks  and that's where screen came from it had traveled thru pipes back thru pump and into heater . Thank God it jammed there and not in the piping some where .
To make maters worse elements 2# and 3#  where melted so bad even with a big  hammer they could not be dislodged so we had to unpack truck and move in the new unit as it was getting dark.
Its after we start hooking lines back up I notice there is no filter on the pump heater inlet.
Had there been a course  filter on the inlet side  the rocks pebbles etc would have been captured and allowed oil to still circulate  but since protocol was not followed it created a very big problem and massive cost . Needles to say more training and precautions are going to be put into effect to prevent future problems. Almost every pumping system you will ever find has a filter screen of some type on the input of the pump to prevent these problems that/s why swimming pool pumps have the plastic basket filter in front to catch leaves, The workers on site thought they did not need to do it and will now face the consequences of there actions.