Deadly Transformer Vault
Here is another MIDWEST transformer horror story. This involves a 1000 kva indoor dry type power transformer, 13.2 Kv to 120/208 volts. The first time we saw this transformer, we thought it was just a spare new transformer core and coil being stored in one of the customer’s equipment rooms. It looked just like a replacement transformer because the core and coil were not in a metal enclosure. It was out in the wide open area of the room with no protective enclosure or barriers, nothing to protect it. To our great surprise, we soon realized that this old transformer was energized. The hmmm and the exposed wires connected to it were a big tip. One had to walk around the transformer to get to one corner of the room. Beside electrical conduits, there were other overhead pipes in the room, plus communication cables. There were electrical panels and non electrical equipment in the room. The electrician said he was told it was okay because it was a locked door and nobody was suppose to go in there. He told his boss that he thought it was very dangerous, but he was told it met code. He thought the whole thing was nuts. We asked where the key was secured so that unqualified personnel could not enter the room, which they called a vault. The key was hung on a nail over a nearby doorway going into a mechanical equipment room. This was considered secure because nobody knew what the key was for, except the ‘right’ people. We explained the extreme shock hazard and arc flash hazard to anyone, even qualified personnel, entering the room and the fact that unqualified personnel may acquire access to the room because of the key location. In plain English, this set up was crazy. To this day, nothing may have changed, because someone decreed “it met code.”