Posted on 09/11/2005 2:36:06 PM PDT by kenth
...."There's this small problem of voltage drop over distance."...
I don't understand your comment.
All hospitals need to have emergency power!
The choice is whether to locate the generator next to the parking lot, or whether to locate it on a steel structure next to the second floor.
What does voltage drop have to do with locating an "emergency" generator below sea level.
Don't be ridiculous. There was another choice. Stay with the patients and take care of them. Did you read the article?
Describe for me the structure in question and where the EG should have been.
Why? Military doctors have been doing this kind of thing for the last couple of centuries.
BullCrap! First sentence was enough for me.
With suitably sized conductors, that will be a non problem. If the engineers really did choose that location so they could skimp on conductor size, they deserve dunce awards.
I was in charge of the engine maintenance on all the standby generators at the Wadsworth Medical Center West Los Angeles, California for a number of years; the gen sets have to be close to the power transformers for the switchgear to function reliably and for testing purposes and certification log-keeping.
Since so much of New Orleans is below sea level one might have to locate backup power units at some secure, elevated distance from the utility-installed transformers and there is where you run into problems.
If neither of you knows exactly the layout, arrangement and capacity of this hospital then you will not be able to answer any further questions on the subject.
What an ABSOLUTE hot steaming chest high load of male bovine excrement.
you, not i, said that locating the generators high above flood level posed a problem with voltage drop.
i know not only how to spell eclectrical injuneer, i is one. graduated second in class.
ir drop, that is a function of conductor size as well as length.
inductance and capacitance issues, are a non problem at distances of several dozen feet. the 240 volt center tapped drops from utility pole pigs to houses and buildings are often longer than that.
So you wanted Dr.'s and nurses to put their own lives in jeopardy?
The patient comes first. Doctors should not murder their patients. I don't expect you to understand that, but you should be aware of the fact that most people do.
SCE required the xfmrs and gensets be tied together in the original design at VAWMC; while not below sea level the UB was low enough that minor flooding could have been a problem.
As I said, if you originally suggested that the gensets be above flooding without taking into account the necessary wiring to the hospital itself then where would you have located them?
I'm rather certain that the power supply for the total flooded area was compromised.
There was no electricity, no water...I've tried up to now to have a conversation with you, but you are just the battiest person on FR. Bar none.
in a penthouse on the roof?
LOL! Not knowing information never stops a Freepers from answering a question with complete surety!
...."Describe for me the structure in question and where the EG should have been."...
Geez, I don't know. Maybe you locate the gen set and its fuel tank next to where the power comes into the building, at about utility pole height. Say you reinforce an area of the floor inside the building, place your genset on steel sleepers, and exhaust out the side of the wall. Noisy? who cares, it's for when you need to keep the patients alive.
Don't like the noise, erect a 10 by 10 or so steel structure on the outside of the building, on steel piers driven into the ground, and place your equipment on top of a platform .
Not rocket science, parking garages are built like this every week.
Fine, it was tough. You still don't kill the weakest members of the group. Especially when you're the one in charge of their well-being. Murder is wrong. Why can't you understand that simple little concept? It's not rocket science. Murder is wrong. Plain and simple.
You call it murder...I call it compassion. I doubt this story anyway, but it is an interesting debate.
You call it murder...I call it compassion. I doubt this story anyway, but it is an interesting debate.
I'm sure the story is bogus, but "compassionate" murder does happen. Unfortunately, you're not the only one with situational ethics. Some doctors don't think there's anything wrong with forced euthanasia, "for the patient's own good."
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