Geothermal

EBEBRATT-Ed

We had a post on here on a geothermal system that brought back some good & Bad memories.

The first geo job I did was back in the early 90s. Closed loop groundwater the "well guys" piped the ground water loop outside and into the building mechanical room where they had a couple of pumps, shut off valves and an expansion tank. That was there job not my problem.


We replaced 5 RTUs with GEO heat pumps and piped into their system that was pressure tested at 60psi I think.


The ground water loop sat for several months over the summer while we waited for equipment, installed it did all the ductwork electrical etc.


We were ready but the two wafer butterfly valves they installed were shut and padlocked. So we called the "well guys" and told them to "bring the keys"


They guy shows up with no keys. He says "I ain't got no keys so I will just pull the valves and change them" he didn't want to cut the locks.......bad mistake

We went back to what we were doing figuring he knew what he was doing WRONG


For those of you that know what a wafer valve is it's just a valve that you put threaded rod between two flanges with a valve in the middle of the flanges. You cant disconnect one flange if there is pressure in the other side.

The pressure gauges were right in front of his face. He pulled the valve out with 60 psi on it.

It was mostly air pressure but guess what? They had allowed some ground water to get in their pipes during assembly. That stuff had been fermenting out in the pipe all summer.

I never smelled anything so bad in my whole life. Evacuated the whole building with a lot of students in there. We laughed about it for days

Mad Dog_2

Thats a great Story Ed.  He's lucky that's all that happened to his face!  The 3 Worst smells I ever had to endure;

1) Hit with a rotten duck egg by my older  cousin  Who thought 🤔 it was hilarious while we worked mucking stalls on the Thoroughbred 🐎 Horse Farm in Saratoga. 
 I immediately starting vomiting it was so wretched I couldn't believe it.
2) Snaking a drain on a dental cuspidor
    Nasty!
3) Cleaning out a commercial greastrao in 
     The Rainbow 🌈 Room Top of The Rock
Restaurant in Rock Center. Late 80s.  It hadn't been cleaned in a yr and it was BRUTAL rancid fat in Gorgeous Colors (Ironically,  IN The Rainbow Room) layered like a fine French Pastry.   It was wild looking.  I guess from different grease sources.  I scooped it out with giant stainless steel spoons and ladles and Spatulas they had hanging near the grease TRAP FOR cleaning. It STANK!!!!!A  I gagged and heaved the whole way but I got it done.  The nextime I never gagged again...Water fountain drains.  Ewwww.  Well, they do same a human's mouth is as Dirty as a Grizzly. Mad Dog

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Mad Dog_2

That's why I only had Master Gasfitter, Master Electrician and Master Pipefitter. Never wanted to get involved in Plumbing although I was forced into it occasionally when the company got behind!!!

Don't know how you can stand that stuff!!

retiredguy

A high school just east of the city of Pittsburgh, Pa had a heating pipe, that I believe was 3", break or separate in the ceiling of the cafeteria. This was a hot water system with glycol. The boiler room was one floor above and the rest of the rooms were 1 and 2 floors above. Yes, the whole system emptied into the cafeteria. What a mess.