First Fall Project

As the season comes to an end we are busy making upgrades for the next season, this project involves running a new power feed to a number of sites that were suffering a sever voltage drop during the heat of the summer. It involves running a new 100 amp service from a transformer to large breaker box in the work shop, then to the site breaker boxes. This involved digging a trench from the transformer outside the office to the workshop, pulling the wire through the “Big O” tile, preparing to open the transformer to pull the cables into the vault under the transformer.

To do this we have to kill the 4000 volt feed coming in to the park, which means, no power anywhere, no water, no internet, no landline phones, so you must be getting the picture by now everything goes down and I mean everything. So it has to happen quickly, we drive to the north end of the park to turn the power off, drive back to the office to open the transformer, drill a two and a half inch hole into the vault, pull the wires into the vault, oh ya did I mention that that the  bottom of the vault is full of water which we have to pump out with the gas powered water pump (which we had to prime before we lost water pressure)after we shut down the power and open the transformer.

So after telling all the people left in the park about two dozen this time of year that the power was going off at 11am and could be off for up to an hour, so every one could prepare accordinly (dont want someone all soaped up in the shower when we kill the power) so after all of the preparation we kill the 4000 volt line at the north end of the park to release the key for the transformer box (oh ya I forgot to mention as a saftey precaution the key for the transformer is locked on the main cut off, so to release the key the power has to be cut and it then cocks the main switch until the key is reinserted) and then the rush to get everything done in as timely manner as possible so start the clock here we go…wow twenty minutes and the power is back on, that was well planned and executed.

Now to fill the trench and clean up the area, the trench will settle over the winter so in the spring we will add some topsoil and grass seed which should finish this part of the project. The next part of this project is installing the 100 amp breaker box in the shop and then digging the trench to the site breaker box which means digging another trench down the back side of the work shop between the sites. I will keep you informed as it happens if things go well should be early next week…so I was asked to measure the next part of the project so Richard could order the wire. Not a job you want to screw up so I used the measuring app on my phone to get the measure for the wire, got to say it worked pretty slick…

As you can see the distance in meters, and it’s easy to use, just point the phone camera at the place you want to start, then walk to where you want to end and the measurement is right there, this measurement had three different legs so you just snap the photo of each and add them together after, nothing to write down or forget, it’s what I would call almost idiot proof. So the plan is to dig the next portion of this project on Sunday afternoon and get the wire laid in place. Then the actual connection will not be made until the park is closed so that we can again kill the power to the whole park and make the final connections, this time the task will be quite a bit more involved and we expect to have the power off for a couple of hours. I need to get the old switch and breaker boxes out of the shop and new 100 amp panel installed this week!

Ok breaker box is installed, great job to have on a rainy day, removing the old main switch and breaker box, install the new 100 amp panel with breaker box, transfer all the old circuits to the new box, and we are ready for the next dig and cable run. I need to add a dedicated circuit for the internet but everything else is up and working.

Projects like this are great this time of year, as the park residence are limited in quantity and the load of my duties has lightened and the weather has been causing havoc with my outside tasks and I enjoy projects like this as it is a break from the regular, weekly duties, and with the rains of this week, not much would have got accomplished, as there are not a lot of indoor tasks on my weekly schedule. and it has been too wet to split wood or mow the grass so a quick trip to Goderich for some more supplies for the internet circuit and everything will be back and better than before.