ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Industrial "Power Pole"

I had a customer call with a reasonable request- now, how do I solve the problem?

In this warehouse, out in the middle of the floor, they have a desk and file cabinet. The power that they need here, and the time clock that they use, rely upon a 1/2" piece of EMT dropped down from the ceiling. Receptacles are set in 4-square boxes on the EMT. The entire thing is supported by zip-ties to an air line.
The customer's request: could I do it a little better?

The roof truss above looks to be 20-25 ft. up. Four Squares poking out from the EMT just seem to beg to get bumped into.
Conventional power poles seem to be out of the question, because 1_ they aren't tall enough. 2) they really aren't supported that well anyway, and 3) the receptacles are in the wrong places.

How would drop power to this location? Oh- I forgot to mention- I also ned to mount a speaker/horn about ten feet up.

If it is 20' or less it is not to bad, you can get strut in 20' lengths.

I would go with 'double' strut which is almost 4" deep.

If you want to have a slick look, order it without holes and with snap on cover. Strut can be the raceway and you could chase nipple boxes on the wide sides of the strut where you need them.

The speaker cable could be zip tied to the outside of the strut.

Strut when used as a raceway is still allowed to be used as support.

Take a look at a B-Line or Uni-strut catalog for some ideas.

Over 20' and it gets a bit tougher.

Check out the prices of the strut, I remmember double strut being more expensive than single struts being bolted together.

There is a host of brackets and mounts to do just about anything with the stuff.


Dnk....

I've seen 10' lengths of strut butted together with a joiner bracket ran up to the ceiling. It was then bolted to another piece of strut spanning the trusses. The installer brought his pipe down the side of the strut with minerallac straps.

Just as Bob, noted, and for a little more strength you can run 45 brackets at the top, and bottom, either way a fork truck will find it.

:-) Les! In this instance, Fork trucks are not a concern....Amen!

I would do one of those installs, and stand back, and admire my work, only to have a fork truck knock it down, it seemed the time clock, and supervisor was a real attraction for distruction.

There is a term for that.

Job Security

Tall strut back-to-back, use both as a raceway...one for power, the other for your speaker/phone. By using two pieces instead of pre-made double strut, you can stagger the connections...start at the ground with a 10' stick, and a 5' stick, so you'll have a joint every 5' in every other piece. Make sure you use all of the fittings that are meant for using strut as a raceway, not the usual 4 hole straps that are normally used.

Put bollards around the base to help with any fork/vehicle traffic.

How far out in the middle is the middle? Get out that concrete saw and drop a conduit down into the slab. Run it up a side wall someplace where you can feed it with power. As far as the horn goes, Bolt a 2-1/2" floor flange to the floor. Screw in a 10" length of 2-1/2" grc. Run your wiring for the horn up the middle of that in MC . Think different.