A Light Ballast is a Light Ballast they are all the Same ? Wrong . It almost caused a fire at one of my customers because the wrong ballast was used.

A Fluorescent Light ballast is a Light ballast wrong. and if you use the wrong one you can cause a fire .
Tke the below sample do you see a Difference ?

Well there is very slight but not knowing this difference can cause major issues.


A customer of mine was blowing out replacement ballasts a couple weeks after they where replacd and I found out he had a unique situation going on .

most Fluorescent lighting fixtures are rigged up for either 120 or 277 VAC

But in my customers case his warehouse lighting was being run at 230VAC  so a conventional ballast would not work.

the ballast on Left is  marked 120 VAC To 277 VAC  this means it can be used on 120,208,230 and 277 VAC 

The Ballast on right is marked 120-277  Normally this can only be used on 120 or 277 not 230 VAC

which was what was happening at my customers warehouse wrong voltage meant ballast burt up in short time usage.

But here is an even more interesting twist  take another close look at this ballast its marked 12-277VAC  OK cant use on 230VAC   wrong this one you can  you will also see a UV mark this means universal input so it can be used on 230VAC

Confused?  your not the only one .

The best way to be safe when replacing a ballast in a fixture is to replace with an exact match if unsure check with manufactuer.

Also remember there are ballasts on market which have a built in  rechargeable back up battery in them so light works during a power outage. So if you have to replace one of those it gets even more critical you get exact replacement and wore correctly.

Light Fixtures manufactured today are much more complicated than in days past repair them incorrectly you can injure yourself and or have a fire develop because the work is improper.

LED Fluorescent Replacement Lamps Present a New Danger to the uninformed when they attempt to change them with wrong lamp

Retrofitting existing Fluorescent Light fixtures with energy efficient LED Light Bulbs  is all the rage  right now in office and retail environments it just makes sense  lamps last up-to 10years and use half the energy and are much brighter than conventional fluorescent lamps.

But It comes with a new danger to those who do not pay attention to how these retrofits are done and fail to pay attention to warning labels which are suppose to be put on every fixture that has been retrofitted like the sticker below

The problem is with Direct drive LED Lamps  the ballast in the fixture is bypassed and 120VAC
is applied directly to the LED Lamps and if a conventional Fluorescent light bulb or tube is
put on 120 VAC it can explode sending shards of glass everywhere.This is why the above label must be placed on fixture ,but many times they are not applied

To make matters even more confusing some LED Lamps you do not bypass the ballast  so you can mix conventional fluorescent with LED  not recommended but it can be done. 

So you can see how confusing it is and how someone who is not familiar with the new LED retrofit Lamps could be badly injured. especially unqualifeied handy mean types.

LED retrofitting is defiantly the best way to go but beware .

Fire Departments, Do You Know Where Your 'Knox Box' Keys Are?

Lucky for one dept I found and returned theirs.

By Nick Markowitz

I do occasional subcontract work for an alarm dealer who has a bunch of coal-fired pizza shops and they're notorious for causing false alarms due to coal dust. Well, this morning I received a call from my friend. He needs me to go to one of his locations and replace a smoke detector, which was false alarming.

So I get on site, change the smoke, then go around back of the store where there's a small rear access room accessible only from the outside. To my concern, I see the Knox Box is sitting open and the store's keys are sitting in the door!

Editor's Note: For info on the Knox Box, visit https://www.knoxbox.com/

Now, had I not noticed this key first and a criminal type got hold of it, which was a very good possibility as every car going drive thru window for business next door would see them hanging there, they could have had access to every store front in town that uses a Knox Box. The fire department would have had to re-key every Knox Box in town to prevent the burglar getting into every store undetected without an alarm. Even if they did, he would be in and out with ease if the burglar had this key.

One town had to do this exact thing and re-key can cost well over $2000.00. To make matters worse, the town could be liable for items taken, which could cost thousands of dollars and they could have gotten a call, arrived on scene and found no key, which is an even worse situation.

I carefully put the door keys back in, locked the Knox Box, and took the keys up the street to the fire department. No one had any idea they where even missing it.

Needless to say, they where very happy I found and returned it. I am sure someone got a chewing out, and rightly so. Some new protocols may also follow, which is a good thing.

It is too easy to loose track of your keys. All of us, including myself, have done it before and there's that rush of adrenaline as you frantically search for them.

Luckily this time, other than some embarrassment, no one got hurt, but it could have turned out much worse.

So I ask again, do you know where your Knox Box keys are? Do you have an SOP protocol in place for how they're to be handled?




Note: the key image in no way allows it to be copied this is a level 4 Bixial key way  and does not reveal  its features

Check out this new style Fire Hydrant now being deployed in Franklin Pa.

I was in Franklin Pa. doing some alarm training for a fellow alarm dealer who needed some help learning one of the Vista128BPT panels  when I came upon a most interesting object sticking out of the ground .

But what was it a new style PIV valve for controlling fire sprinklers?

No its a radically new design for a Fire Hydrant

Manufactured by Sigelock Systems LLC and designed to be tamper proof to prevent water theft and hydrants being opened maliciously and to be easier to operate and increased water flow .

http://sigelock.com/

Check out the link below to see it in action and its story 

https://youtu.be/UpNO7MptSuA

Major Gas Explosion and Fire at a Plaza in Penn Hills Pa. Brings criticism of Gas company for not shutting down entire gas main to help put fire out . But I understand the gas company's concern it could make situation even worse

Penn Hills is no stranger to major fires  over it many decades as a township in Allegheny County

and controversy about how fires where handled often come up from the Arm Chair Quarterbacks.
 But this time I am with the Peoples Gas Company when they would not shut down the Street Main

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/07/29/firefighters-and-peoples-gas-have-conflicting-stories-about-why-the-gas-took-so-long-to-get-shut-off/

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/07/28/gas-line-fire-penn-hills/

Photo Credit KDKA TV 2

 They where having difficulty locating  the 3rd and final shutoff going into the plaza and  had to excavate to find it.

delaying putting out the fire for several hours.

So why not just shut off the natural gas  main  line going into the area ?

This would be a very bad move to make . Why?

The problem is after line is shut off then gas is turned back on it needs to be properly bleed of any air that possibly accumulated . But the bigger danger is the 100 or more properties that may or may not have always on Standing Pilot Lights

That are on Stoves , Hot Water Tanks and Furnaces .

Also we have a High Pressure distribution system compared to low pressure system more common in newer areas.  Which brings many more dangers if not slowly and properly shut down and this would have taken  much  longer then it took to find and finally shut down 3rd line. A very stringent protocol must be followed.
I was doing  repair work on Oil heating equipment for a week  at a new gas pressurization station in Preston County WV  for one of my customers who does hot oil pipe cleaning of newly installed gas lines and saw all the precautions and steps taken when they where cutting in new lines and its intense to say the least.
I had to sit thru a  3 hr safety class as well to even get on the site and it covered all the precautions and showed many examples of when things go bad  with natural gas . you don't just shut down a main.

Plus each and every home and business has to be visited by a gas company repairmen to make sure there properly lighted and gas is not building up in the structure and another explosion even worse than the plaza fire happening .

Plus what about the homes and business where no one is there to let the repairmen in. The gas company has no choice but to shut off meter to structure and owner of structure then has to call have lines inspected to get gas back on and pilot lights lite. 

Its a scenario and a liability the gas companies avoid at all costs .

Having years of experience working on various Natural Gas Equipment and Appliances as I do HVAC trouble shooting   I know the dangers involved in shutting gas lines down improperly . 

So what can be done to avoid this situation in future?  Because it happens  all too often when a gas line is damaged by car accident hitting a house or a construction accident striking a line .

Make the valves in the ground  more visible with paint markings on street and caps well painted with reflective paint . Make sure they are not blocked and have detailed maps for fire company's where every gas main shut off is located inside commercial buildings  and  where street shut offs are located which gas company should already know. 

This will take time and effort and ongoing work to insure  maps and markings stays current  but in long run its worth it.

In the mean time excellent Job by all depts involved keeping the citizens safe. 

That was firefighting excellence being out there over 11 hours keeping the scene under control

Beaver County Officials Failed to use EAS Emergency Alert System during a Chemical release emergency and many did not know there was a problem

Yes once again Emergency Management Officials failed to use their most valuable assets during the Ammonia  Chemical Release in Rochester  in Beaver County. When a building full of chemicals  being demolished caught fire

https://www.wtae.com/article/beaver-county-residents-urged-to-shelter-in-place-due-to-chlorine-gas-leak/28383658

Many people had no idea an emergency order to shelter in place was issued never got a reverse emergency call  or anything they found out on Social Media  with its usual inaccuracy's

The Emergency Alert System EAS and  Pa.- EM Net where specifically set up to assist officials to get as many people notified as quickly as possible during all  types of emergency's .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System

They could have sent message out thru Weather service and even there own EM Net Terminal and failed to use it.

https://www.comlabs.com/emnet-eas

Had they activated it every Emergency Weather Radio in Beaver County would have gotten it every AM/ FM  Radio Station and Low Power TV would have been interrupted and message delivered as well as Cable TV Providers and many Smart Phone Providers would have sent the message .

Beaver County has failed to use it .  So has Allegheny County with Chemical Emergency's when train cars went off tracks in Creighton a few years back.

Its a dam shame all that Tax Payer  Money spent  on improving EAS and EM Net and not used.

Just more excuses why people where not notified unacceptable excuses . You have the tool use it.

During the Chemical release Emergency's in Kawana County Charleston area of West Virginia

EAS was deployed and citizens told what they needed to do and how to shelter in place

IF such a  so called backward state of WV used the system and saved lives why has Beaver county and Allegheny county not used it


Beaver and Allegheny County Emergency officials you have failed your citizens  

 Of course now the bigger question why was a business allowed to close and not properly dispose of the chemicals and sit there for up to 10 years.