Adding generator to existing service w/ generator

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iwire

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I was TDY at a USG facility in [SOMEWHERE] & a question came up about exactly which security equipment was on the building generator, and which wasn't. Since this was important, I said "Show me. I want a power fail test...." Amazingly, I got it.

So at 6 pm, we pulled the poco feed. Main generator started, the right lighting came up, but we soon found out that many of the shredders and other classified destruction equipment were oops not generator loads. We also found out the transfer pump to refill the day tank was among the oops.

But the bigger blowback was the comms area emergency generator had failed to start, and their feed was NOT a building generator load. So they were black during our test. Not Good....

None of those items other than egress lighting and perhaps the day tank are allowed to be supplied from an emergency generator.

Those are all examples of optional standby loads to the NEC. :)
 

Open Neutral

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Those are all examples of optional standby loads to the NEC. :)

I have no clue how much of NEC applies inside USG installations.... much less those outside CONUS.
But suffice to say "optional" was not a term the IG applied to the gear in question.

(I never got a rational explanation as for why the comms vault was not fed by the big generator as well as its own....)
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
I have no clue how much of NEC applies inside USG installations.... much less those outside CONUS.
But suffice to say "optional" was not a term the IG applied to the gear in question.

(I never got a rational explanation as for why the comms vault was not fed by the big generator as well as its own....)

I have no idea if the NEC applies or not but pretty much every person / entity thinks the loads they deal with are emergency loads regardless of it being a banks data center, the security cameras around a bussness or the security guards coffe maker. But to the NEC those are all optional loads and cannot be supplied from the same distrubition system as the NEC emergency loads.

:)
 

Open Neutral

Senior Member
Location
Inside the Beltway
Occupation
Engineer
I have no idea if the NEC applies or not but pretty much every person / entity thinks the loads they deal with are emergency loads regardless of it being a banks data center, the security cameras around a bussness or the security guards coffe maker. But to the NEC those are all optional loads and cannot be supplied from the same distrubition system as the NEC emergency loads.
:)

As far as I know, there was no NEC - conformant emergency generator. Then anyone consistent with the NEC would likely be medivac'ed Stateside with shock if they looked. My favorite horror was in another country. Battery-box emergency lamps were high on the wall. The power to them? A V-notch was cut in the drywall and the zipcord down to the plug was then plastered in place.

I was in the 921 quake in Taiwan, and discovered the "air pot" (i.e. a teapot that kept water hot with a diaphragm you pumped to fill your cup) was on the emergency generator. In my room that lasted only long enough to plug in a floor lamp instead....
 
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