local airport where i am hasnt realy seen any tlc on the lighting system in well over a decade. been baby sat by retirded truck drivers since the airport guy passed in 2011 till recently
is there anything out there on troubleshooting and what sorta maintaince these things should get?
im sure im searching the wrong things.
is theres laws codes ect around this stuff i should be aware of???
i spent 4 days digging and pumping out the run way lights as they had quit and found one that had come unpluged
also are the can lids suppost to be burred under a foot of material?
the strobes need maintinance as well but theyre always live and need new bulbs and allot of contact cleaner. one needs new controllor as its burnt up.
Code books have always been a bit expensive. They are a bit daunting, part of apprenticeship training is “how to read and interpret the code book.” Many guys least favourite class.
Most electricians never buy another one after they finish trade school.
Odds are you're going to be dealing with a high voltage system, so if you're not trained in that you're going to end up getting hurt or killing yourself or the next guy who has to try and troubleshoot what ever you've f'd with. Don't even attempt to play with this sort of thing, if you aren't a ticketed electrician.
Having said that, there should be prints/schematics for the system or as "as builts" to aid in figuring out the system in addition to tracing the system.
But, again, don't go fucking around with a high voltage lighting system at an airport unless you know what you're doing, what you're getting into, and are an electrician...
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Last edited by 7ECA on Thu May 12, 2022 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
and full replacement is millions of dallors no one has
im looking for advice on these systems not a run away.
the system needs tlc im asking for tricks and things to watch out for
most electricians dont like troubleshooting and maintinance. specialy on obscure things
If there's no prints/as builts/schematics that are useable, and the documentation the airport does have is of no use - in addition to there being issues with the system as a whole; of course no electrician wants to get involved in what's going to be a massive and time consuming project.
Don't attempt to hire this job out to an individual, it needs to be handled by a larger company that has experience in these sorts of projects - and you bet your bottom dollar that's gonna cost big bucks. And, there's no guarantee that a company that knows what they're doing isn't going to show up and spend a few days or weeks troubleshooting and attempting repairs before they say replace the works.
No one is going to give you advice on how to play amateur electrician on a high voltage, safety critical system at an airport, beyond saying don't screw with it if you don't have a ticket and experience.
There's another reason no electrician has wanted to take this job on, they can smell a shitty cheap client a mile away. This airport is clearly trying to haywire things on the cheap, otherwise they wouldn't have let or asked an amateur take on the task.
I'm not entirely sure why the OP is getting grief or is being called cheap for hiring a local electrician to check out the system.
When the airport lighting system was redone at our small airport, a medium sized local electrical company installed the thing. I don't find it weird a local electrician would be contacted to troubleshoot it. It's not some magical thing. It's wires and lightbulbs and some controller(s). No reason why a 'normal' electrician wouldn't be able to work on it.
A full replacement because it stopped working seems a bit of overkill at this point. The road to success is likely to find someone who is willing to dig in and troubleshoot. That will cost a bit of money, but shouldn't be prohibitive. But it might be hard to convince someone to do something they've never done before, vs spending their time on a sure-thing-wiring-new-construction-like-i've-done-thousands-of-times-before.
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As an AvCanada discussion grows longer:
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
The OP, or more specifically, the airport is being incredibly cheap by getting a non-electrician volunteer to try and repair/maintain an high voltage lighting system that no amateur has any rights to be playing with.
The reason the electrician(s) they tried to hire wanted no part in playing with a broken system, is because they were probably told it was an easy job and upon showing up realized that they had a client on their hands that wanted to get a flat rate - for a job that's liable to take days or weeks (or longer) to work on. If you're going to pay the going rate, there'll be an electrician out there who'd be happy to go through the work of troubleshooting the system and possibly working on repairing it. But, there's a pretty good chance that said electrician may also recommend replacing the works if there's too many problems. Basically, you get what you pay for...
7ECA wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 10:09 pm
The OP, or more specifically, the airport is being incredibly cheap by getting a non-electrician volunteer to try and repair/maintain an high voltage lighting system that no amateur has any rights to be playing with.
The reason the electrician(s) they tried to hire wanted no part in playing with a broken system, is because they were probably told it was an easy job and upon showing up realized that they had a client on their hands that wanted to get a flat rate - for a job that's liable to take days or weeks (or longer) to work on. If you're going to pay the going rate, there'll be an electrician out there who'd be happy to go through the work of troubleshooting the system and possibly working on repairing it. But, there's a pretty good chance that said electrician may also recommend replacing the works if there's too many problems. Basically, you get what you pay for...
Do you know more about the OP's situation than what's posted here?
If not, you're making a lot of assumptions...
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As an AvCanada discussion grows longer:
-the probability of 'entitlement' being mentioned, approaches 1
-one will be accused of using bad airmanship
Airport had a maintenance guy that took care of things for years, said guy dies. Airport let's things go for a bit, until people start complaining and someone volunteers to take on the task. They do the volunteer job for a bit, until they get sick of it - things have gone downhill... now the latest volunteer has inherited a lighting system that's FUBAR and wants tips and tricks from the internet to haywire it back to operating.
The "lady electrician(s) who won't do repairs or troubleshoot" bit is a pretty common complaint against tradespeople who refuse to get pigeonholed into never-ending nightmare jobs, at a flat rate rather than a normal hourly rate. These are almost always the experienced guys/gals, because they've seen this shit before and aren't falling for it when they know their worth. It's not that many of them aren't happy to take on complex jobs, it's just that they demand to actually get paid properly - kind of like how AME's bitch and surmise about cheap owners who try and get them to do the work without paying for their actual time...
Start at the electrical room. Is anything labled? What voltages are the airport lights fed with? You need a good meter to test circuits, something good for 1000 v. I worked at one shop where a car mechanic plugged his 12 v meter into a 208 v circuit and it exploded in his face.
As long as you're dealing with low voltage, go get a set of Class 0 gloves from an electrical wholesaler (good for 1000v and under). Wear safety glasses as a minimum, but a face shield isn't a bad idea either for hot work. Even calorie rated covies, or FR could be worth the money. From there you can start the process of elimination to figure out where things are powered from, and once you find what breaker controls what you should buy a few LOTO (lock out tag out) sets so nobody re energizes shit while you're working on it. Especially if the lights are ARCAL.
Section 74 of the CEC has a few specific tidbits about series lighting systems which I've never heard of. I would have no idea what a "ground counterpoise" is either, but it's apparently required. Otherwise the general wiring methods apply.
The part that gave me concern is that Section 74 requires Type ASLC wiring. I've never heard of this before but google says its 5000 v rated wire.
Those black connectors on the feed to the light, I'm assuming you've taken them apart, do they have inline fuses in them?
