Christmas Tree Lighting

The scheduler for the maintenance department called me up today and asked if I had info on the amperage draw and current wire sizing on our scrubber pumps before and after I arranged for the pumps to be upgraded. That is to say, currently, where pumps used to be, there is nothing. When I finish the project, there will be new pumps.

My answer was that I did not personally have the quote with the new power draw listed, and that I was not the easiest person to ask what the wire rating was, though I could find out if he wanted.

He said that wasn't necessary, since I had told him everything he needed to know to get the info faster. I then asked him why he was looking for that info. He replied that it was pretty likely that the existing wire had been originally spec-ed out as a minimum, and that we may need to pull better wire through to properly run the new pumps.

I replied that there would be no need to do that, as I had another project I was trying to wrap up that we could roll together. "I have a string of 250 Christmas tree lights form a few years back that I can't get replacement bulbs for anymore. It'd be a shame to throw out the whole strand just because of that. Let's just plug an extension cord in the hallway, run the string of lights into the [process] bay, pull out the very last bulb, and connect it to the new pump from the two connecters exposed in the socket."

Much laughter ensued.*









*For those confused, here is a partial list of things wrong with that idea:

1) The process bay is rated as an explosion proof area. You can't walk in there with a cell phone, let alone a string of Christmas tree lights.

2) The resulting passage of electricity through the wire, at best, would blow out the fuse and several bulbs immediately. At worst, neither of those things would be enough to stop the current which would melt and eventually cause the wire to catch fire.

3) Small tripping hazard.

4) Connecting the lower voltage leads, in parallel, to a higher voltage circuit… Well, it would do bad things to both sources of power, hopefully involving only fuses.

5) Conspicuously pretty, for a quarter of a second.