Same employer, just a new task. Fans. Rooftop Fans.
Following Murphy's Law, this came during the hottest, sunniest week of our delayed (and mild) summer.
As with 90% of electrical work, this job has little to do with Ohm's law, and even less to do with code minutia. Nope. It's just that a steel mill has suddenly discovered that most of the fans are not working over the hottest parts of the plant.
Let's see the results so far: 85% of the fans had failed belts, 15% have motors with destroyed bearings. Not a single, true "electrical" issue found yet. Fans are caked with inches of caked "grease," and in some places the roof deck will burn you if you touch it - even for a moment.
Starters turn out to be rather well marked - but most artfully hidden. LOTO is carried to an extreme, with every person supposed to add their lock to the starter. Sometimes you can't see the starter for the locks.
More interesting is the customers' "100% tie off" policy, on a roof where OSHA rules are a lot more lax. It seems half the day is spent fighting with the damn ropes. You are often 300 ft. from the edge of a nearly flat roof, and they want us tied off. At least they haven't discovered the OSHA rule against using a boom lift as an elevator
I'll tell you this: my kit now includes a large welders' blanket, to place between me and the hot tin roof. I have also found the only practical way to haul stuff around the roof is a children's snow sled - it rides across the ridges on the roof with ease.
Sunburn is an issue. Sun glasses a must. Gatorade by the gallon. Ice by the ton.
