Truck hits Power Pole.... Thousands of Smart Meters... Wait for it... Explode

A well respected HVAC Company overhauled our chiller compressors. As you might guess they finished just in time to go off shift and ask "us" to put it on line.

Buttoned up, it all read good on test gear. Pushed the start and nothing. Now this was a thousand HP unit and we were ten floors up from the vault. I made the long trip down, found the fused breaker tripped. Cranked out the fused breaker and then ran a fuse test. Two blown. Went to stock room and secured fuses, unbolted fuses, installed new fuses. Checked for ground and shorts all good.
Told Boss the Company should come back and check their work. He suggested I check the wiring at the pecker head of the motor. I did, all showed good. I repeated "the Company should come back and check their work." Being the Boss he wanted to start the unit so we tried. Boss was home by now.

I was in the vault when the 1000 amp sand quenched fuse blew this time. By the exit door I might add.

Boss then agreed "the Company should come back and check their work."

What we found, as they opened the compressor, after removing all the insulation, was they had left a 4x4 in the vane section, wedged tight.

So the system saw a dead short when the start button was pressed.

We had to check Ten Floors of copper bus duct at each connection point.

Before the Compressor was buttoned up, hands on proved that it was easily moved.

Those who overhaul gear should test their own work!

 

I was the chief eng at a upscale hotel a few years ago and we had some of the oldest elec equip i have ever seen,back up gen was a Duezt 12 cyl built in 1965 most of the elec panels where outdated elevators where so old that theyd short and blew fuses weekly total gong show,when i left they where finally replacing equip but only because i could no longer find anyone to help me repair this stuff,vi remember replacing a blown out relay on one of our 1950 dynamax washers and i had accidentally put the wrong size in,ahhh yes nothing like scaring the crap out of your laundry staff
D