This horse is dead and mushy but here goes anyway

[peter d]

See post 16......

See post 18.....

 

[480sparky]

I can't think of any reason other than to keep some lights on if a fault occurs...I'm just trying to reverse engineer what I saw to determine what was and what wasn't.

I have never done a WalMart but I have seen a base open and all I saw were wirenuts sticking out...no fuses at all.

I've had the honor of working on 3 Wally Worlds, and unless they changed their specs in the past 3 or 4 years, they're not fused.

 

[mattsilkwood]

You really think the 3 heads on one pole are on seperate circuits?

Maybe one here and one there, as night-lights for security between midnight and 5AM....

on the blue box lights they had them fed with a 3 pole breaker i think 3 poles to a circuit. each pole had 3 heads wired a-b, b-c, c-a. then of course thier security circuits here and there.

 

[hillbilly1]

Most Depots do not have fuses in the bottom of the poles, but Wally World's do. Depot's poles are set up with different circuits for the heads usually one head for security lighting and the other two, sales hours only. A mix-match of sometimes just the front row of poles, sometimes others. Yes, they are 480 volt. The newer stores are kinda pain because you have to call corporate to get the lights overidden, but you can still turn off the breaker(s) but with the new solenoid type breakers this sets an alarm condition, and it has to be reset by corporate sometimes to make it work automatically again. It's a programming thing.

 

[brian john]

To easy to turn the lights on tag the poles and turn off for repair or replacement.

 

[hillbilly1]

The wally worlds in Dublin,and Fayetteville Georgia are fused, Dublin is a real old store, Fayetteville is relativly new. that's the only ones that I've been to recently. Probally retrofit by corporate edict. The last new Wally World I wired was In the late 80's, and I don't remember putting any in at that time.

 

[yankj]

There is a lamp anti-sieze available to overcome lamps that tend to stick in sockets.

There are bold electricians, and there are old electricians; but you seldom see an old bold electrican.

Stay safe!

 

[Fulthrotl]

Besides the shock hazard there is also the danger of lamp breakage. Seems pretty foolish to be removing live HID lamps that could very well be frozen in the sockets, but that's just me. How hard would it be to take inventory of the dead stuff by putting a piece of tape at the bottom of each pole with a dead lamp, then killing the power?

I just kinda shook my head and saw in real life why we have so many statistics about electrocutions and injuries. There was no justifiable reason to do any of that work live, other than perhaps they might get to leave the job an hour early from the time saved to walk back and forth to the electric room a few times. :roll:

ok.... let's see... override the timer, walk the lot, tag the dead ones,
shut everything off..... 30 minutes for one guy?

whole crew, working 480 hot, all day..... have to go slow, be careful
of live wires etc., there goes your 30 minutes 4 fold over. no safety
considerations, just looking at the economic and time ones.

it's actually slower, but to a testosterone soaked 22 year old, it doesn't
seem that way....

as a recovering 22 year old, who has over 30 years experience being
not 22, there isn't much that can be said to someone who does stuff
that way, that doesn't sound like the crotchety old guy complaining.

if it's a large shop, they might have a safety guy... i'd be tempted to
give him a call, and mention what you've observed..

the 22 year old running the crew won't appreciate it, but the 19
year old apprentice who doesn't know what he doesn't know might
last a bit longer....

randy

 

[Pullnwire]

These guys probably had 4 locations to maintain that day. They probably did not care if they were hot. I guesss we could give them the benefit of doubt and assume there were ballast disconnects in the fixtures. I like being able to unplug the ballast and replace it, DEAD

 

[480sparky]

FWIW, some newer HIDs I've worked on have a nylon disconnect inside the fixture. The supply end is mounted on the back of the fixture towards the pole. Pull it apart, and all the hots/neutrals are disconnected. It's possible their fixtures have those as well, and they're really not working them hot.

 

[iaov]

That is just sad....

The electrician that doesnt respect electricity, never gets to become an old electrician.

~Matt

Thers old electricians and bold electricians, but there are no old bold electricians.:smile:

 

[quogueelectric]

I am working at the blue box tomorrow for a 1 day overtime call I will let you all know how it goes.

 

[peter d]

FWIW, some newer HIDs I've worked on have a nylon disconnect inside the fixture. The supply end is mounted on the back of the fixture towards the pole. Pull it apart, and all the hots/neutrals are disconnected. It's possible their fixtures have those as well, and they're really not working them hot.

That's always a possibility, but this particular store was built back in 2002ish. Regardless, they were still changing lamps out live, and even that has the potential for danger.

 

[Luketrician]

FWIW, some newer HIDs I've worked on have a nylon disconnect inside the fixture. The supply end is mounted on the back of the fixture towards the pole. Pull it apart, and all the hots/neutrals are disconnected. It's possible their fixtures have those as well, and they're really not working them hot.

Just wanted to add that I work on ALOT of highmast HID fixtures and most have what you described 480...we still (by our companys SOPs) de-energize the fixtures prior to opening them up though.

BTW...I'm glad cold weather is getting here...no more wasps to worry about when I'm booming up to work on them.:smile:

 

[hillbilly1]

Most of the pole fixtures I've worked on have the plastic disconnect plug, but usually it's been deteriorated by heat so bad it crumbles or is hard to unplug, posing another shock hazard if not wearing linemans gloves.

 

[jrannis]

In Dade County we have to fuse each ballast.

 

[76nemo]

Maintenance guys don't always have thee option of not working it live. I had more to day, but post #2 and #27 stole my words.

 

[Mule]

I was at Home De....errrr...I mean the orange box today and saw one of our large New England based EC's doing lighting maintenance on all of the outdoor parking lot and facade lighting.

Nothing out of the ordinary except they were changing all of the dead lamps and ballasts out live. I'm guessing they over rode the energy management system because everything in the lot and on the building was lit (except for the dead stuff of course.) One guy had a ballast taken out of a pole light with the other 2 heads lit and another had a wall pack hanging by the wires. The poles are likely 480, wallpacks are likely 277 volts.

Besides the shock hazard there is also the danger of lamp breakage. Seems pretty foolish to be removing live HID lamps that could very well be frozen in the sockets, but that's just me. How hard would it be to take inventory of the dead stuff by putting a piece of tape at the bottom of each pole with a dead lamp, then killing the power?

I just kinda shook my head and saw in real life why we have so many statistics about electrocutions and injuries. There was no justifiable reason to do any of that work live, other than perhaps they might get to leave the job an hour early from the time saved to walk back and forth to the electric room a few times. :roll:

I worked with a older electrician that did this in a maintenance shop, and he got shocked via his hands too far down on his Ideal strippers, and got into 480 or 277 to ground I should say.....any way it rattled him pretty good, pulled muscles in his shoulder and neck, had to have physical theropy for a few days....hurt him pretty bad.....DONT screw around with 480 period....

 

[jm1470]

I do light maint at a mall and all of our poles are 480 and we do have fuseholders and fuses at the base of the pole. The only thing we do live is change the bulbs, but I make sure we wear gloves, hard hats, eye protection and a safety harness. If the ballast needs to be replace just open up the fuseholders and go to work. I do another center were the energy management company charges you every time they override the lights. I know some other guys who did the work hot crazy if you ask me. Forget about the 480 for a minute and think about that capictor.

 

[76nemo]

I worked with a older electrician that did this in a maintenance shop, and he got shocked via his hands too far down on his Ideal strippers, and got into 480 or 277 to ground I should say.....any way it rattled him pretty good, pulled muscles in his shoulder and neck, had to have physical theropy for a few days....hurt him pretty bad.....DONT screw around with 480 period....

Is 277 okay to play with????