Flooded Service

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WirenutNH

Member
Location
NH
I am looking for some input on a job that I looked at this past weekend. I was called to look at a bank owned vacant building that had 4-4" sprinkler pipes burst due to gas and electric being turned off. The power has been turned back on up to 2- 600 amp mains and gas co say they will turn on gas once they see there is power in the building. The service located in the basement is a 1200 amp 120/208 3Ph with two 600 amp fused mains. There is a second 600 amp fused disco down steam from one of the main 600 amps mains, off of this 600 amp main there are 3-200 amp fused discos that feed branch cir panels/heaters on first flr. All OCP in basement are fuses and have had been flooded, the water is gone and the area is drying out. I am wondering if removing existing fuses check all connections megga effected feeder circuits and install new effected fuses, If there is any issue that would be raised to do this? All feeder conductors are THW. The service was under water for about 1-2 days is what I have been told. The bank is looking to get power back on asap so they can fix sprinler mains get heat back on.
 
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fondini

Senior Member
Location
nw ohio
megger your wires, most service equipment manufactors will void all warranty due to water contaiments, no code book in front of me but you will find this under detorating agents.it is a good time to upgrade to current code,most insurance has code upgrade written into it, build a temp service to provide heat and de-humidifier power. get a hold of ins. agent and work with him as mold is an issue now too! good oppurtunity to make some good money here. best of luck
 
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jeremysterling

Senior Member
Location
Austin, TX
Last year a burst plumbing pipe caused water to run down energized 1200A busduct and chase for four floors of high rise under construction. No tenants in building yet, so busduct was de-energized and locked out (no fault occurred), disassembled on lowest floor, drained(!) a good amount of water out of busduct, and reassembled and meggered OK. Efforts were made to restore power quickly if anyone could "sign-off" on the wetted bus. Reenergizing would not happen until insurance agents and manufacturers blessing the following day.

Next day Manufacturer rep said warranty was void so insurance was forced to pay for wetted busduct removal and replacement.
 
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bigjohn67

Senior Member
Flooded Service

Isn't THW rated for wet locations?

If you want to see what CONTAMINATED water can do to panels and wire, take a trip down to New Orleans, we'll show you plenty.
 
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charlietuna

Senior Member
We had the same situation on a operating seven story bank/office building were the basement switchgear we submerged for 24 hours. I attempted to clean it up but could never get a decent meggar reading-time was money in this case, and after two days we made the decision to replace everything. We put in an emergency order to Square D and had the building back on line in one week. Sub feeds were no problem. This building was 25 years old and this work brought the gear up to today's standards. When looking back - i asked - we might have wasted a week or two without any improvements on the meggar reading too??? This was the best direction to go, for everyone involved. And after seeing the actual water damage to the gear as we removed it, i knew it was fruitless to try to dry it out!!
 
zog

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
WirenutNH said:
I am looking for some input on a job that I looked at this past weekend. I was called to look at a bank owned vacant building that had 4-4" sprinkler pipes burst due to gas and electric being turned off. The power has been turned back on up to 2- 600 amp mains and gas co say they will turn on gas once they see there is power in the building. The service located in the basement is a 1200 amp 120/208 3Ph with two 600 amp fused mains. There is a second 600 amp fused disco down steam from one of the main 600 amps mains, off of this 600 amp main there are 3-200 amp fused discos that feed branch cir panels/heaters on first flr. All OCP in basement are fuses and have had been flooded, the water is gone and the area is drying out. I am wondering if removing existing fuses check all connections megga effected feeder circuits and install new effected fuses, If there is any issue that would be raised to do this? All feeder conductors are THW. The service was under water for about 1-2 days is what I have been told. The bank is looking to get power back on asap so they can fix sprinler mains get heat back on.
Click to expand...

NEMA standards say to replace and/or recondition, depending on which compoents you are asking about.
 

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active1

Senior Member
Location
Las Vegas
Some insurance companies have provisions that the coverage is void if the building is vacant. Between vandalism, copper theft, equipment theft, damage from no utilities, and flooding it can be costly letting property sit unmaintained or supervised. Insurance companies know this and may add a clause not covering these situations.

If you think the gear was flooded then replace it. Why mess around?

How about a 3R equipment upsell with compression fittings?
 
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WirenutNH

Member
Location
NH
I thank all of you for the insight. I have gone the route of telling client that the only option is to replace gear. Thanks
 
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charlietuna

Senior Member
You will never get a gear manufacturer to sell you just the "guts"! Plus it wouldn't have a "UL" rating when you got finished. And the labor to remove all the guts-then re-install it would be higher than ordering mcomplete gear. If there is no rush on getting it operational and you can order it in "normal production" you will save a bundle!! That "emergency order" gets very expensive !
 
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