Doc’s Diagnosis – Computer Crashing
Craig diagnosed a complex electrical overloading situation at the State of Colorado’s main computer facility. The findings resulted in a million dollar orderly renovation saving a potential disaster to the State’s computing system.
Craig also has designed and implemented complex electrical shutdowns in buildings where much of the equipment is critical and cannot be without electricity. Craig’s understanding of facilities operations in electrical and HVAC enables fast and correct diagnosis of your problems
Doc’s Diagnosis – Black Friday Blackout
The Friday after Thanksgiving is affectionately called Black Friday. It is the busiest shopping day of the entire year, where even the slowest of economies pick up the pace and cater to every shopper’s wants. Some stores open early on Black Friday, as early as Midnight and some just open an hour or two earlier than usual. We were looking forward to a much needed 3 day weekend here at E.D.I when we received a call around 8:45am. The Abercrombie Kids store had gone to open at 8:00am that morning, ready for a rush of shoppers and when they went to turn on the lights and open the doors to swarms of shoppers, they had a Black Friday Blackout! The store’s mechanical and lighting systems are controlled remotely via an automation system to help lights from being left on and the store being over heated/cooled. There are two manual override buttons for the lighting system which allow several hours of on time before resuming normal operation. When the manger went to override the lighting… nothing… just emergency lights stayed on. We received the call around 8:45am after the on-call mall electrician was unable to determine the problem. E.D.I arrived on scene within an hour of the call ~9:30am and began to diagnose the issue. Craig and Jim determined that the main lighting contactor (see picture below) for the entire store had failed. The failure of the lighting contactor had then caused several other issues with the automation system. Not having access to such a part on a weekend where all the distributors are closed might have put an end to Abercrombie Kid’s major shopping day in others’ hands but the docs swung into action. Craig and Jim removed the contactor promptly and began to jump the panel so it could be used manually to control the lighting. After resetting the system and even taking the time to show the employees how to use the lighting in the meantime, the store was back in light, the blackout over and the doors were ready to open for eager shoppers by 10:30. A few days later, the contactor was in and E.D.I installed the part during non-business hours and everything was back to normal. While AK did lose 2.5hours of shopping time, they know that it could have been quite a bit longer without the docs on the scene. Prompt response and expert diagnosing helped to save thousands of dollars when they needed it most.
Lighting Contactor:
Doc’s Diagnosis – Blowing A Fuse
Craig successfully diagnosed a 1000 ton chiller that was blowing a fuse intermittently. The customer previously had spent a large amount of money including replacing the motor at the cost of $50,000 with no success! The fuse continued to blow on occasion leaving the buildings hot and the occupants and customer dissatisfied. Craig identified a potential wire issue in 1 of a possible 20 large conductors. The damaged portion of the wire is shown below. What started as a pin-hole size puncture on the wire, turned into an eroded section of wire. The damaged 500 MCM wire was replaced, all at a fraction of the cost of the prior, unsuccessful attempts.
