Dave, I'd suggest checking exhaust of hood monthly, maybe quarter ly, with a smoke candle. When you do, be certain to alert both your fac ilities and security groups. You don't want them thinking the building has been set on fire and calling the fire dept (I speak from experience ). You can get the candle at safety supply houses. They come in different sizes & burn for varying lengths of time. The info rmation contained in this e-mail message and any attachments may be con fidential. It is intended only for the use of the individual or entitie s named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipi ent, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or co pying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have receive d this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail a t the originating address. Peter Lazarski Nationalgrid USA Chemical Laboratory, Bldg. 1 7437 Henry Clay Blvd. Liverp ool, NY 13088 Phone: (315) 460-2114 Fax: (315) 460-857 8 Email: peter.lazarski**At_Symbol_Here**us.ngrid.com -----Original Mes sage----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] O n Behalf Of David Roberts Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 9:42 P M To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [DCHAS-L] Has anybody ever had this happen before? Hello all, We recently did a majo r renovation of our science facilities (5-6 years ago maybe now - it's all a blur and something I'd like to forget). In any event, our new fa cilities are wonderful (given the size of our school) and we are very p leased with things. But (you knew a but was coming), we had an odd sit uation recently that I will try to explain. The chemistry floor i s the top floor, occupying about 1/2 of the 3rd floor in our building. Our building was built in phases, as we lived in it during the constru ction phase. All of the chemistry air is vented out of the building, n o recirculation at all (which is wasteful from a heating/cooling perspe ctive but necessary for obvious reasons). Prior to this event, we forg ot that the air paths run side by side, in an attempt to steal heat (in the winter) from room air and give it to incoming air as the exhaust a ir is leaving (energy saving - works the opposite in the summer) . Anyway, a few weeks back we were running an organic lab and the floor stunk really bad, and it seemed to be worse on the south end of the building, and really it seemed to be coming in the incoming air ven ts. We didn't think this was possible, so we attributed it to bad stude nt technique taking their samples all over the place. Come to find out , one of the air handlers (things were still working mind you, we hav e several of these I believe) had come off it's shaft, a bolt or tw o broke, and it torqued inside the cage, causing a buckle in the pane l that separates the exhaust air from the incoming air. As a result, t he air streams were mixing, and we were in fact breathing in exhausted hood air. Note that this is not a situation where our exhaust vents ar e located near our intake vents (I have heard lots of issues on that on e; we don't have that case at all nor can that happen in our situation - which was what made this a puzzling thing to find as things seemed to be working) We have since done a temp. fix on this waiting for parts, smelly toxic labs have stopped in the south end of our build ing, and we are in the process of fixing it. We were diligent and thin gs were discovered quickly, so there was little exposure, but we did ha ve an annoying day or two. In any event, now for the questio n. Has this ever happened to anybody? Does anybody know of a test that one can run to be sure something like this (as rare as it may be) isn' t going on prior to doing a lab that really smells and can cause issues ? It seems to me that this probably has happened elsewhere, as the des ign is not that absurd, though I truly don't know. A simple smoke test or a test using ammonia and/or vinegar would seem to me to be enough t o know if something is wrong or not. Any ideas on how we can test this before the canary dies? Thanks Dave *************************************************************************** ***** This e-mail and any files transmitted with it, are confidential t o National Grid and are intended solely for the use of the individual or ent ity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please reply to this message and let the sender know.
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post