What did you do at work today?

[CopperNick]

Today, however was somewhat different, but not necessarily for a good change. Last night around supper most of the city grid went down and stayed down for around 40 minutes. As usual, nothing forthcoming from the supplier about why but the yard talk was that power feed had been lost to two of the substations. At that point all I knew for sure was that I was glad that my TV and Computers had both been fitted with Surge/Battery back up units. Both of them started wailing at the same time and I had to finally shut them down completely until the grid came back up. Funniest thing was that outside was cool and dry; no boomers to be heard.

So, got to work this AM and the first thing that I notice is that the Diesel-Electric back up generator for the facility is up and running, and not at idle like would be the case if it was a regular operational status test. This time it is in almost full boogie mode; and no service rep in sight. Get inside and just as loud in there. Buddy tells me that the dedicated transformer sitting outside the receiving bay went down during the power out and never came back. Verdict is that the underground power runs that deliver the high Zot juice got fried. The energy supplier had a full team on site all day and they were hard at it to get through the asphalt and down to where those cables had been laid. Not sure if they will be able to pull cable using the old ones as the fish leads or if they will have to rip out the whole chunnel to get down and lay in all new runs. Someone(s) could be making some serious cha-ching this weekend as locally it is a Federal Statutory Holiday and if the emergency crew has to work it they can earn as much as triple time or maybe double/double for the hours they put in. We weren't the only site with problems either as they had a full pole team over by the intercity substation and they were stringing fresh wire on those poles too. It all tells me that it must have been a major surge of some kind.

Since the sound of a diesel up close and personal while in continuous high rpm operation sn't high on my list of mechanical music to get down with, I elected to make a pass by my truck and retrieve my ear muffs, one pair, industrial grade, that I had requisitioned the last time I had to deal with the backup unit. The techs only run it at part throttle for a specific amount of time in order to save on wear and tear. Think they will be having to do a full up fluids check and change after this. Anyway, the muffs make my ears happy and suppress the racket to a dull roar. Sorry, no pictures, the white hats get all pissy-pants if someone they don't know tries to shoot some un-approved footage.

Apart from that just another day of dealing with the squirrels.



Nick

 

[Built6spdMCSS]

I finished all my stuff and left at like 12:50..off until Thursday. I'll take it.

 

[CopperNick]

Calendar tells me that you get your 4th the day after our own Federal Stat so basically for you it is a take it where it falls situation. For us it is always the first Monday in July. A lot of the departments were the near equivalent of ghost towns due to staff taking the Friday as a Vay-kay day to get the 4 day long weekend. One of our perks is that you can bank overtime and either accept the cash or take it as additional time off to pad your holidays.



Nick

 

[86LK]

Today, however was somewhat different, but not necessarily for a good change. Last night around supper most of the city grid went down and stayed down for around 40 minutes. As usual, nothing forthcoming from the supplier about why but the yard talk was that power feed had been lost to two of the substations. At that point all I knew for sure was that I was glad that my TV and Computers had both been fitted with Surge/Battery back up units. Both of them started wailing at the same time and I had to finally shut them down completely until the grid came back up. Funniest thing was that outside was cool and dry; no boomers to be heard.

So, got to work this AM and the first thing that I notice is that the Diesel-Electric back up generator for the facility is up and running, and not at idle like would be the case if it was a regular operational status test. This time it is in almost full boogie mode; and no service rep in sight. Get inside and just as loud in there. Buddy tells me that the dedicated transformer sitting outside the receiving bay went down during the power out and never came back. Verdict is that the underground power runs that deliver the high Zot juice got fried. The energy supplier had a full team on site all day and they were hard at it to get through the asphalt and down to where those cables had been laid. Not sure if they will be able to pull cable using the old ones as the fish leads or if they will have to rip out the whole chunnel to get down and lay in all new runs. Someone(s) could be making some serious cha-ching this weekend as locally it is a Federal Statutory Holiday and if the emergency crew has to work it they can earn as much as triple time or maybe double/double for the hours they put in. We weren't the only site with problems either as they had a full pole team over by the intercity substation and they were stringing fresh wire on those poles too. It all tells me that it must have been a major surge of some kind.

Since the sound of a diesel up close and personal while in continuous high rpm operation sn't high on my list of mechanical music to get down with, I elected to make a pass by my truck and retrieve my ear muffs, one pair, industrial grade, that I had requisitioned the last time I had to deal with the backup unit. The techs only run it at part throttle for a specific amount of time in order to save on wear and tear. Think they will be having to do a full up fluids check and change after this. Anyway, the muffs make my ears happy and suppress the racket to a dull roar. Sorry, no pictures, the white hats get all pissy-pants if someone they don't know tries to shoot some un-approved footage.

Apart from that just another day of dealing with the squirrels.



Nick

we had these on my boat...
The specific diesel carried onboard all Los Angeles class submarines is the Fairbanks Morse opposed piston 8 cylinder 850kW 720rpm 1207hP engine-generator

standing in an enclosed steel hull, not 2 ft away, watching gauges, had to wear plugs and headsets, stepping out and rotating shifts every 15 minutes.... loud doesn't begin to describe it

 

[CopperNick]

So how bad is your hearing loss at this point? Thinking here that even with plugs and Mouse Muffs, the cumulative damage ought to approach pretty close to what Lead Guitarists end up with after all those decades of standing inches away from a stack of Marshalls at full wail.


Nick

 

[Supercharged111]

Louder than standing next to a fighter jet with hearing protection?

 

[Built6spdMCSS]

What?

 

[CopperNick]

Well, by comparison, the back up generator is in a room that is immediately adjacent to where I work. Between us is a single row concrete block wall about 6-8 inches thick at most; no insulation or stud walls. The absolute air space is, 4 feet, to maybe 6 at most. The absolute safety factor is marginal; should the diesel blow up, the resulting carnage would probably take out the partition wall and hurt/kill whoever happened to be next door. Consider, when the service rep shows up to perform the monthly test run, he won't stay in the room with the diesel while it is operating..........................

Physically, I am standing far closer to that generator than someone standing beside a jet at idle could be and remain safe.

Then, too, there is the quality and timbre of the sound being generated. The jet engines are more in the howl/very high pitched whine portion of the audio spectrum whereas an industrially rated diesel generator might sound lower but it is a Roar at close quarters. This is not a truck or semi diesel here. The ambient sound does not rise or fall according to whether or not there is a transmission that is being shifted. This is an engine running at about, maybe, 50% throttle with the governor fully engaged. The resultant sound is continuous. It has no mufflers per se. Most of the noise is discharged to the outside by means of a 4x8 foot discharge vent. The sound carries far enough that even at the far end of the mechanics bays it can still be heard; and they are loud in and of themselves. And using the word Roar, is something of an understatement; the sound is closer to a continuous thunder with the matching vibration. My buddy was using earplugs alone. He used to work out at the papermill and hates the mouse -muffs. Me, I hate the plugs. They make my ears auditory canals sore and itchy with means I get to use the med cream, again, to get rid of the itch/ouch.

Famously, it was Jack Roush, of Roush Racing, aka the Cat in the Hat for his habit of wearing one, who could stand beside one of his cars, listen to the engine song, and tell the engineers purely by the sound if the tune was true or needed tweaking. And he did it without ear protection..

There is no song to this generator it is just out and out noise at decibels loud enough to hurt.


Nick

 

[86LK]

.... but it is a Roar at close quarters. This is not a truck or semi diesel here. The ambient sound does not rise or fall according to whether or not there is a transmission that is being shifted. This is an engine running at about, maybe, 50% throttle with the governor fully engaged. The resultant sound is continuous. It has no mufflers per se. Most of the noise is discharged to the outside by means of a 4x8 foot discharge vent. The sound carries far enough that even at the far end of the mechanics bays it can still be heard; and they are loud in and of themselves. And using the word Roar, is something of an understatement; the sound is closer to a continuous thunder with the matching vibration.

There is no song to this generator it is just out and out noise at decibels loud enough to hurt.


Nick

this 100% describes it. luckily I only ever had to do it once, so no hearing loss.

I work barricade security at music festivals, wear plugs, and suspect I've lost some there over the last 10 years, aside from getting older. The lower stacks at the front of the stage get cranked up for the rappers for the bass. I try to stand between them to avoid the noise and vibration. any time I attend a concert inside I usually forget my plugs and that makes it worse than the outside festivals even if I'm 70-80 yards back from the stage.

 

[mclellan83]

Went out to the jobsite to replace some blown out orings that turned out to be a fitting and then go right back after it did it again