The weekly staff meeting was moved from the office to the site this morning. There were around 15 individuals in attendance.

After the meeting we removed the 800 amp distribution panel from its pallet inside the building then moved it into the power room. This is the heaviest of the five panels that goes into the power room. (I don’t think I have mentioned in precious messages that the floor of the power room is about 5 feet above ground level.)

Jim discovered when reviewing the air conditioner schematics that a 110v circuit needed to be run to power an auxiliary outlet in each condensing unit. Normally, these wire should have been pulled in at the same time as the large 150 amp wires. We pulled back the ground wire to each unit and were able to use it (with a lot of effort) to pull in wires for the outlet. Today, I learned a technique from Ralph and Jim for freeing up apparent ‘jams’ in the pull by keeping tension on the wire being pulled in while pulling back on all the other wires in the pipe. Worked great!!

I went back to the power room to bolt both the 800 amp distribution panel and the ATS (automatic transfer switch) to the concrete wall. I needed to locate a hammer drill, concrete bits, and the rawl bolts necessary to accomplish the job. Being new the site, this involves quite a bit of time rounding all of these things up. (This process is getting a little faster each day, as I learn where certain tools are kept.) By the time this was accomplished it was time for lunch.

Home for lunch and a siesta!

First the 800 amp distribution panel was bolted to the wall. This was relatively straight forward as there were holes in the back of the panel specifically for that purpose.

Next followed a discussion of how to bolt the ATS to the wall. As there were no holes for that purpose and the removable back panel is only held on by 6 small screws, Daryl suggested drilling through the frame. After I discovered that drilling through the frame would also mean drilling through the back panel, I decided to look for an alternative method. The frame is built much like the familiar 19” frames used for rack mounted equipment. The side panel is recessed into the frame. By cutting a length of 2 X 2 X 1/4” aluminum angle into 2 inch long pieces and shortening one of the 2” sides of the angle to match the distance from the back of the panel to the recess for the side panel, a clamp was made that could clamp the ATS to the wall without any drilling through the cabinet. Fabrication of the clamps and completing the installation took the rest of the afternoon.

While I was doing this, Ralph was completing the wiring to the condensing units and Jim was making holes through three solid concrete walls large enough to allow the installation of all 12 coolant lines plus conduits for all the control wiring that runs between the condensing units and the air handlers.

On the way home, we noticed that salt was being loaded on the ship we saw yesterday, so we drove south to get a closer look.  There is a large conveyor belt with a shoot that drops the salt into the hold of the ship.  Two huge front end loaders dump the salt into large hoppers that feed the conveyor belt.  This process continues 24 hours per day until the ship is loaded.  Judging from the how deep the ship seems to be sitting in the water, it appears to be about half full.

Ralph, Virginia and I went for a cool down swim at Bachelor Beach before supper, which consisted of canned ham, baked potato with sour cream, green beans, other Dutch beans (translated “soft garden bones”–To me they were like the bean seeds you find in green beans that have been left on the vine too long. You cannot eat the pod, but the beans inside are still good–, and salad with craisins and sunflower seeds. Later we had a special treat—ice cream!