Ron, yes and no. [Linked Image]

All are now owned by the same chain, however they where built by at least 3 different chains with vastly different designs and times of construction, say from the 60s to present.

It is a sure bet different engineers.

When I first got in the trade I thought gen sets where the way to go for emergency egress lighting, now with some time in if it was up to me I would go with Bodine type ballasts.

Having one emergency genset for all the egress lighting IMO is almost as bad as relying on the Natural Gas. As you are well aware gensets can fail to start or transfer for a lot of reasons.

The large black out last year (and the non start of many of these gen sets) was the push this chain needed to have us connect the Gensets to the chains central monitoring station.

They watch for:

1)Gen Run to verify successful weekly exercise.

2)Gen Fail

3)Power Fail at ATS normal Terminals.

I was both happy and surprised that they spent the money for this. [Linked Image]

Bob

Bob Badger
Construction & Maintenance Electrician
Massachusetts