I had a service call for an emergency generator that failed to start during it's weekly exercise.

When I pulled up out front I remembered I had been there two years before connecting the generator to remote monitoring.

Once I got to the electric room and pulled enough stuff out from the door that I could use my key I through my entire 220 lbs into the door to force it open this far...




... you can see the old non-functioning vending machine blocking the door from full travel.

Now we can look into what is the Main Electric Service room.

Believe it or not there is a generator in there.




Can you see it?



How about now?



Oh there it is right behind the 4' x 8' sheets of plastic.



Sure wish I could see the control panel.

Oh I forgot to mention the lights in the room did not work, I had to find some lamps.

I could see the fail to start light was lite on the control panel and I was able to slip my hand down and hit reset.

I used the test feature on the ATS and the unit fired up immediately. I never found the reason it failed to start.

However I did find the exhaust had a large hole in it.

I took these pictures and the company emailed them to the customers headquarters.

They have promised it would be cleaned out.

I will believe it when I see it, some of the junk was in the room when I was there two years ago.

Bob



[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 06-16-2006).]

Talk about a fire waiting to happen...

I hope the room has good ventilation with that hole in the exhaust.

Where is the Fire Marshall? Like a cop, never around when you need them.

This kind of gives a new meaning to the term "LOTO", as displayed in the first image:



When I was involved with Retail Bank Branches (even loan centers and corporate campuses), the above noted "Crap Clusters" were commonplace for any Electrical Room.


Bob's situation places a new twist on things - as I never had to use that much force to enter the "Variety Pack" rooms!

What's even better in Bob's example, is the presence of a Genny which uses an Internal Combustion Engine for the Prime Mover!

I would like to share these images with a few people, if that is OK with you Bob?

Scott35

Quote "Talk about a fire waiting to happen..."

I have seen this cause a fire!! I Worked for large grocery chain in the Northwest. Cardboard display base just flung into the room. Un-like this location, no protection around exhaust. Right at the end of the weekly auto test cardboard caught fire and set off sprinkler system. We all know how water and electricity mix. Needless to say it took most of the day to get everything dried out, and the power back on.

Good thing that Gennie DID fail to start... If it did I think that the room would have gone from being called an " electrical room" to full out "incineratED Room"...
Somehow I have found the electrical rooms of banks are the worst for storing all sorts of combustables in such rooms... could just be me but every one I have been in its a disaster waiting to happen

Bob,
This nothing but a mess.
I'd be interested to know who would be responsible if someone was not able to get near the isolation switches in an emergency.
Incidentally Bob,
What is that funny looking wavy pipe thing heading down into that green box, in pics 4 and 5, is that EMT?, it just looks like the end has been flattened on it.
{I apologise for the lame description}.

Sorry all I had forgotten about this thread.

Scott you can certainly use these pictures.

I was supposed to go back last Friday but truck problems side tracked that.

I will be going back soon, they supposedly cleaned the room out. I'll have my camera with me.

Mike that is 3/8" flexible conduit running from a change over fitting from EMT.

Its not flat, I believe it has the low voltage generator start circuit in it.

Pretty sloppy job none the less.

So they will probably just move all that crap to another storage/electrical room? Hopefully there isnt any other elec room. Maybe they should consider a yardsale?