Facilities Management #4
Part #4 Let There Be Light
I am a creature of habit. Every time I go to the office I hit the second-floor landing and there is the emergency light. In our city emergency lights and illuminated exit signs at key doors are in the building code. The emergency lights have a small test switch on the side and by habit I always press it to see the lights flash on.
One night a client dropped by and was fascinated by our back up power system and wanted to see it work. I simply unplugged Gladys from the wall and there we were. She was really amazed how simple the process was. I admit this was the first real time we went dark while I was on shift and, I must confess, these old eyes had a hard time working the keyboard. It was at that time I realized emergency lighting was a critical component required.
My thought was simple. Use City approved lighting like our hallways. And in the process be compliant with the building code if it ever came up. After 20 minutes online I realized this was not for amateurs. You had to buy the lights, then you need to mount and bend conduit to run the wires and connect the light units together. This was a job for an electrician. Luckily, one of our clients is an electrician, so I had him drop in. The price was not too bad, just over eleven hundred dollars in 2004 money. Luckily, he was easy to work with. He made it easy. I gave him my Home Depot credit card to buy the parts, and he let me deduct the labor from his bill over a few months. All good.
It took about a month or so and a bad storm hit us. I remember it was about 800pm and five or so minutes in, the power went out. On top of the computers and network maintaining operation now we had light. Or sort of light. It reminded me of the first night game at Wrigley field. We all waited with bated breath for that event. It turned out to be a huge disappointment. Problem was the lights were just not that good. They were not aimed right. There were bad shadows and dark areas everywhere. It took the Cubs a few weeks to sort things out. They needed massive adjustments and tweaking and re positioning. That was my problem. I immediately noticed each light needs to be turned side to side or slightly up or down but nonetheless we had lights.
Then about 15 minutes later the lights started shutting off one at a time. What gives? The system was new. The next day I go to The Home Depot and buy one new battery. For this system the units were about $12.00 each. I install it into our bathroom and let it charge one full day. The next day we did a controlled power outage. We tripped the main office breaker, and everything did what it was supposed to do. Then we hit the 15-minute mark, and the lights all died including the bathroom.
I was beside myself. This time I called the customer service number and spoke to a live person. I explained my tales of woe. The rep looked up my product and politely explained that these are emergency commercial lights for emergencies and evacuations. I respond, “continue please”. She further explains the purpose is to allow all visitors to grab their belongings and safely exit the premises. I then mention I see a model on their website where the box under the light is twice the height of mine. I inquire if I can swap out mine for the larger ones which obviously have larger batteries. She explains that is not possible. I once mentioned I have made my share of mistakes. This one I am blaming on the electrician.
At this point I must make a road trip to The Home Depot. Am I the only one who goes there not sure what I need but always find the solution? In fact, it is those trips where I always get good service. An employee will walk up to me and say, “Sir how could I help you?” Then I confess, I don’t know what I am looking for until I find it. I start in the lighting department. One of my favorite tricks is to pull out my phone and look at the temperature. Then while standing in the warmer light aisle, wait for the temperature to rise 2 degrees. Job done move on.
After about 15 minutes of walking research, I find it. This is likely bigger than the Beatles. It is a flashlight but so much more. You can turn it off and put it in your glove box. You can turn it on and find the blown fuse in your dark basement. The third switch was the winner. You can plug it in the wall outlet and the light will be off while it charges. If the power dies the light goes on.
In my finest Al Pacino voice. “Meet my little friend” The Energizer Weatheready.
This unit was affordable and manufactured by a name brand company. I felt upbeat. I purchase one. I take it to office and plug it in. I then left it for the day and went home. I get back to work that night and there it was, waiting for the big reveal. I pull it out of the outlet and the light turned on. I place it on my desk pointed away and I wrote the time down it was turned on. Ladies and gentlemen, moms and dads, boys and girls: This light stayed illuminated for 8 hours and 11 minutes. Now full disclosure, the last 37 minutes were too dim to be useful, but I picked a winner.
The following day I return to the depot. They had 6 flashlights left. I grabbed them. Now I need an adapter because I am going large. I was so hyped I bypassed the temperature aisle check. Then I found it. There it was. It was big, it was sleek, and it was red. I grabbed a few and hereby crowned it “The Electric Tomato”
I arrive at the office and started assembling my real, true, efficient, affordable back up light system.
I had 2 or 3 clusters per large room. One in the closet, one in the bathroom. I got some for home and when everything was done, I just barely broke $300.00 for a total investment. Great concept.
