atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems First Service call in 25 years

Well, maybe not 25 years. I did change a lamp last week (and needed a lamp extractor!).

But 25 years might be pretty close.

I was taking a nap and Fran was making all sorts of noise. OK, I'm up what's the problem? No internet. I go downstairs and the router (and the TV and the Set top Box and....) are all dark. Down the basement, check the breaker and all is good. I've got some power, but not all. Lost a phase from Con Edison.

Take the cover off the panel and test. Yup. I got half my service. I call Con Ed and the robot promises to dispatch soon.

Now my supervisor (Fran) says: "What's that clicking?" Interruptor in the 501 cabinet. Unbury it and discover the first (and now only) CO line is hosed.. Weird flutter type hold (not installed on my system). Clear more crap out of the way, lay down on the floor (don't ask, it's a long, sad story) and start testing.

Do I still remember how to test? It's been a real long time! This stuff just doesn't break. I wound up removing tips and rings from first one, then another terminal when it hits me.

The power went out first. It's got to be related to that. But how? It's all 1A2. Except......

For the 2 line phone I installed a few years ago that no one ever uses. THAT ONE plugs into the AC.

I went upstairs to the living room, pulled the plug and the problem went away.

Annoyed am I? You bet.

At that point Edison came by, (not bad. 90 minutes from when I called) told me that with all the snow on the street from the Nor'Easter (not to mention all the cars parked on top of the manholes that are frozen in place) that there was no way to provide a permanent fix.

Lacking a key to get into the demarcation box they opened my electric panel, removed the offending 1/0 cable from the breaker and jumped it out to the other phase - with number 10 wire!

"Don't you think that's a little light for 100 Amps?"

"Nah, it'll be fine till the snow thaws."

Oh well.

Luckily I don't have much that's 220 in the house.

It's been a day.

Sam

A piece of official WE light olive gray #6 wasn't available? That would have given you 50 amps.

You could have offered to use a piece of 25-pair. That would probably be the equivalent of a 1/0. Flexible, too, once it gets good and warm.

I've got a piece of #6 in the house. They didn't want to use it!

I'll deal with it. Hopefully the snow melts and I can get them back.

I'm happy they came out quickly. Those guys are running around like crazy with the weather conditions here.

Sam

I once used a length of 25-pair to make a negative cable for a sports car that had broken down due to a failed spot weld where the original cable had been fastened to the inside of the fender. Remind me to tell you about it someday.

Sounds like a good story, Arthur!

Sam

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

Yep. Once used two pieces of 25 pair as home made jumper cables to start a old Mustang. Necessity is the mother of invention or so they say.

Did you guys (or as we say in Brooklyn "youze guyz") strip all 50 conductors first? On both ends?

Seems like a lot of work.

Easier to go get another beer.

Sam

Um, by my calculations, you don't have ANY right now!

It's inconceivable to me that anyone can function without a minimum 200 amp, 120/240 service anymore. I remember the first time that I ever saw a single-pole 50 amp breaker. Yep, it was at my uncle's apartment in... You guessed it. New York City. Central steam for heat and gas for everything else. Go figure.

You'll be fine with the #10 jumper, Sam. Dominion/Virginia Power uses 1/0 aluminum for up to a 300 amp service here, about three-times what it's rated for.

Arthur's right, though. A piece of #6 L.O.G. is good for just about anything. Anything.

Ed -

I had 60 Amp single phase 208 service - forever! Well since they electrified this house (sometime in the '20s, I believe).

I only recently upgraded because the old equipment was falling apart. and I thought it would be easier to sell the house (someday) with a 100Amp service.

I had planned on upgrading it when I bought it (1980) and decided to do a test.

I turned on everything electrical In the house and then went across each phase with an Amp probe.

43 amps on one phase and 40 on the other.

I left it alone.

I have natural gas for heating the house, hot water, the stove and the clothes dryer.

I'm going to call Edison tomorrow though. The snow should be (mostly) melted by then and I'd like to get back to normal.

Sam

Using 25-pair for jumper cables:

Tell wife/girlfriend that the reason you bought the VERY EXPENSIVE jumper cables was so that when you needed them, THEY WOULD BE IN THE CAR. Strip the outer jacket back about 6 inches. Fire up the Bernzo-matic torch.* Lightly sautee the ends until the colors drip off. Shake vigorously or douse in a roadside puddle to put out the flames. Do not inhale the smoke.

Tell the nice Sheriff's deputy who just rolled up that, no, you were not signalling for help from the rest of your tribe, but if he could do you a small favor and let your hysterical wife/girlfriend sit in the back seat of his Crown Vic for a few minutes that would be appreciated. (Handcuffs optional)

*In the absence of a torch, dip the ends in gasoline, apply a match.

"Adapt, improvise, overcome."

I took a foot of it, wrapped it around a piece of EMT, and made a wrench holder for my toolbox!

That'll work!

Sam

Towed a car with it once. I guess technically seventy five pair since I tripled it up to be sure she held.

Did you isolate the violet pairs to avoid a false hold situation?

(Inside joke for former 1A2 guys)

Yep wrapped 'em back. Brings up another topic I always wrapped back spares. Now when I go to a 66 and jack end, they are cut off at the sheath, jacket or casing. Select your preferred term.

Sam, did ConEd ever come back and fix your service?

They did. I called them as soon as the snow melted and you could see the manholes. Came right out, went down the hole and respliced the cable.

No complaints.

My refrigerator went out at about the same time time, I kind of suspect it was related. That got fixed too.

All in all, it was a very annoying week.

Sam

Yeah, right about the same time they got my check. Shoulda just told them to send the bill directly to that guy up in Westchester who is paying to maintain all that decrepit underground stuff.

-Hal

We've got the 27K feeders on poles (running up the side streets) and feeding the avenues (manholes).

I've lived in this house for 37 years and for the first 30 we never had an outage. The last couple of years they seem to come more and more frequently. I guess it's time to upgrade the underground plant.

And Hal, Thanks! We sure do appreciate your effort.

The house, BTW, was built in 1903. It had gas lamps and a coal furnace. Electrification seems to have gone in two sections; first one, probably sometime in the '20s was pretty much just lights. Then about 10 or 15 years later they put in receptacles.

Sam

Anything for you guys in the city, Sam. Just wait until we pull the plug on that pesky nuke plant here. One big argument for keeping it going was that NYC would have rolling blackouts without it.

-Hal

Well, the city does need power from someplace. I have no problem with nuke plants in general. Indian Point is getting a little long in the tooth.

Personally, like most bleeding-heart pinko leftists I'm kind of fond of renewables - solar, wind, hydro....

I put Solar on my house last year. Thought I'd put my money where my mouth was.

Sam

That's the problem. You can't just get rid of a plant that generates 25% of the regions power without a plan to replace that power BEFORE you shut it down. But what do you expect from bleeding-heart pinko leftist politicians?

As for solar, it's all very confusing to me. Not the technology but all the different solar companies and their "deals". Truthfully, I never looked into any, the last salesman that came walking around the back of the house last summer when we were having a barbecue didn't last long.

Probably one in ten houses have solar around here. When I ask neighbors about their installation and how much they are saving nobody can give a straight answer. The one across the street paid something for the installation to their company but her electric bills are all over the place. Some months nothing and some months over $200. The guy next door didn't pay anything and he says he saves about $30/mo. When I ask him how does he get that number, he says his bill is $30 less than what it used to be. So is that because of what your solar produces or did you just use less? He had no idea.

So my point is, I think solar could be a cute way to offset some of your electric usage but it all depends on the company you are dealing with, what their cut is and how much "real estate" you have available to cover with solar panels. If I'm only going to save $30 a month it's hardly worth the trouble. I've briefly thought about buying my own equipment and installing it myself, thus not sharing the KWs with some company that leases space on my roof. But I suspect that the ROI would be longer than my lifetime.

-Hal

I bought mine outright. I almost didn't, because ¾ of the way through the process, the City and the the FDNY changed the regulations and I could only install 10 panels, not the 14 I was planning on.

In any event, I did it and am on target to produce about 2,000+ KWH this year. That should be between 20 & 25% of my total electrical bill. (In the last 3 years I used 10,416, 8,880 & 9,033 KWH).

I'm getting a pretty sizable Federal Tax rebate because of the Solar Installation, as well as a State Tax rebate and a City rebate (spread over 4 years on my property taxes). All things considered it's not costing me much and should produce some nice returns over the next 20 years.

To me, it was a no brainer - and I've got a 20' wide row house. If I had one of those McMansions that you upstaters have I'd be doing much better.

I'm tracking everything on a spreadsheet and have logged my monthly bills for the last 3 years. I'll no more at the end of the summer with a full years worth of data.

PS. The people I bought it from are in Mt. Vernon. They said it was much easier to get things done up in your neck of the woods.

Sam

Hi Sam,
I know nothing about solar. Do they use storage batteries? If it does, how are they maintained?

No, an inverter that syncs to the incoming power line. It just backfeeds a two pole breaker in your panel. The inverter will shut down when it senses no power from the utility.

There are of course all kinds of other schemes and some do use batteries, kind of like a UPS but these are not what you see in these residential solar installs.

By the way Sam, since you got me interested, driving around the neighborhood it looks like 10-12 panels is the norm even here when they could get twice as many on the roofs. Wonder why?

-Hal

Thank you for the information. We can't do solar due to all the trees around us. Oh well I guess I could just put up a wind mill and wait for my neighbors next shouting match.

John,

In NYC you are NOT allowed to use storage batteries in residential buildings (the Fire Dept. considers them bombs waiting to go off). God knows I've put thousands of batteries in commercial buildings, backing up telephone switches and Electrical UPS systems.

Hal,

Without seeing the roofs, I can't tell. The best place to put them is on a Southern exposure. While you can get results from another exposure, usually it's not enough to justify the expense. My problem was maintaining an aisle the FDNY could walk through, clearance around hatches and skylights etc.

I always thought that when I retired I'd do the work myself. Then when I actually did retire, I considered my physical condition and then thought about dealing with the City Buildings department without an Electrical license and I said "screw it". I was offered a pretty good deal though my union and I went with it.

So far, so good. If you have any questions, give me a call and I'll do what I can to answer them.

Sam

Got a call from my power company(AEP) last week saying they would be doing tree trimming in my area next week and would be using a helicopter with a hanging saw.Im not too knowledgeable in that area but thats a new one on me.

Saw a video and had a discussion of that a couple of years ago on the arborist board I belong to. Wasn't too impressed. It ain't any saw, it's a hacker.

-Hal