Re: Looking for examples of good and bad installs

["Frank Olson" <feolson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"bdolph" <bdolph@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:p_SKe.4221$Wi6.3065@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I am putting together an article on workmanship and professional security
>installations.  I am looking for photos of really great and really bad
>installations.  I don't need to know the clients name or location, just
>looking for good examples of really bad and really good professional
>installs.  You may email me direct with the photo attached.  If the photo
>is over 2 meg in size please email to bob.dolph@xxxxxxxxxx
>
> If anybody has some good stories to tell about installs I am sure all
> would be interested to comment.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Bobby D

What's the article for??

I came across a job the other day (sorry, no pictures) where 110VAC was run
right across the common control board of an old Pyrotronics CPC series fire
alarm.  It had originally been tied into the alarm relay normally closed
terminals for the buildings door holders.  The alarm company that has been
doing the montoring there for the last three years needed the contacts for
their equipment.  They installed a 120VAC "ice cube" relay into the left
bottom corner of the cabinet (next to the batteries), wired it to the input
side of the FACP's transformer (major "no-no") and the alarm contacts
(another major "no-no" as the relay contacts are rated at 60 VDC max).  One
side of the "ice cube" relay was used for the door holders, while the other
provided the alarm input for their monitoring equipment.

We replaced their relay with a 24VDC unit powered from the panel's
supervised aux power through the normally open contacts on the alarm relay,
rerouted the door holder wires around the *outside* of the cabinet into the
same knockout used for the system's AC power.

The electrican that installed the system must have had the manual available
to properly terminate the field wiring but *missed* the power/current
limitation on the alarm relay.  Cerberus/Pyrotronics (the manufacturer)
*verified* the installation and *also* missed the improperly connected door
holders, and the alarm company installer compounded this mistake by
connecting 110VAC to the contacts *and* parallelling off the systems power
transformer!

What is this world coming to??