Thursday, January 26, 2017

In charge on paper only

Today the fire department showed up two times, about and hour and a half apart.  Unbenounced to anyone in the building the fire/security panel apparently freaked out and silently dialed 911 (twice).  No alarms and strobes, and no reported errors on the panels.

Things happen, but this has happened twice since this summer when the had ESG (who got canned and replaced by Martin/Connecting Point) do the security panel upgrade.

You'd think "they" would have had someone look at it since that time.  Speaking of "they," it is just the most impressive thing in the world when you have something like this happen and you'd like to get a hold of someone.  Even more-so awesome, when the Fire Chief leaves a message trying to raise the dead, and no response from either the Director of Building and Grounds or the Assistant.

Thank goodness the building principal was eventual reachable and came in.  At least someone has a sense of responsibility.

The system was taken off line till a service technician could come in that night to trouble shoot it.  As there was a good chance if it could not be remedied before school next morning that they would have to cancel/delay school as you really can't go a whole day with the fire system/monitoring disabled when you have full occupancy.


Sunday, January 1, 2017

Changing lighting ballasts

For the last couple years someone from Thomas Electric has been telling various Custodians that they shouldn't be changing lighting ballasts.

This person never mentions if there is some sort of recent code change, so when I hear this I figure even if its true, its the result of the IBEW and lobbing, not something based on logic.  It's not like ballasts have changed in recent years, nor have a I heard of any tragic mistakes made by non electricians.

So I decided to look into it.  The 2016 Winter Commercial Electrical Code Update from the Wisconsin DSPS has this Q and A, easy to understand answers to common code questions:

We have an employee who installs electrical wiring  in our facility. We are licensed as a RCAC or  residential care facility. Does our employee have to be licensed as an electrician? What are her  options as far as the type of license needed to per form her work?
ss 101.862(4)(b)
Answer: Yes for installation. No for repair.  Ss 101.862(4) (b) Employees may perform maintenance or repair. Installation must be done by licensed electricians. ...

Which is what you would expect.  Don't be fooled by someone looking to safeguard "their" work.