MASTER ELECTRICIAN DAD TEACHES HIS SON THE SECRET HOW TO DEAL WITH COMMERCIAL ELECTRIC!

Dad, what's your best advice for some commercial lighting? My best advice for commercial lighting is to realize that there's always an emergency source behind it. Emergency. There's an emergency power source behind commercial lighting. In other words, engineers design buildings so that you can get out in an emergency. Okay? So, one of my biggest tips I can give you is make sure that you've isolated the circuit that's feeding the light fixtures when you're working on them. >> Okay? >> And determine where that emergency egress power is coming from. That must be there. >> Okay? >> Now, it's either going to come from a life safety generator >> or it's going to come from a battery like this. This looks like a battery. Oh, this looks like a ballast, but it's a battery. This This is a battery. >> It's a battery. So, if you notice in some commercial lighting, some of the fixtures are going to have >> a charge button. >> Okay. Just like that. >> Yes. And it's going to be illuminated, right? >> And what this does is this will this always has power, constant power to it. >> Mhm. And often times, even when you turn the light switch off, this is still being fed with power, right? >> Yeah. >> And you want to make sure when you work on these fixtures that you can isolate this emergency power. >> Oh. >> And one of the ways you can do it is you disassemble this switch. >> Okay? >> That's usually attached to a drop ceiling. >> And there's a disconnect inside that. >> You can you can locate these wires. And you can see here these two wires. There's a male and a female. >> Okay. >> And when these are together, this battery is actually putting out 277 volts. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Cuz we are in commercial lighting. That's the other tip. Determine are they using 120 volt or 277 volt. >> Yeah. >> Often it's 277 volt. Do you know why? Um because commercial buildings are 277 volt because uh because of the equipment they use. No, it's because the higher the voltage, the lower the current. So when we use a 480 volt panel, single pole to neutral or ground, what voltage do we read? >> Uh 120 volts. >> 277 volts. >> No, 277 volts. >> Yes. Okay. >> On a 480 vol panel, one face to ground is 277. >> Okay. >> If we use Ohm's law as 277 volts in our load calculation, our current does what? Does our current increase or decrease? When our voltage increases or decreases. >> When the when the voltage increases, the current decreases. >> Correct. So, what does that mean? uh that means uh >> we can use smaller wire or we can put more load on standard building wire. Okay. Therefore, it's always more beneficial to use 277 volt. However, getting hit by 277 volt versus 120 volt is always an issue. So, my first advice to you is don't just take the light switches off. >> Okay? Why in a commercial building? Because we're a creature of habit, right? How many times have we worked on a facility, we turn the power off, but we still go in and turn the light on and we go, "Oh, what a dummy. The power is off." So, you might have a colleague, you might have someone come in, you turn a switch off, >> you're working on this one hallway and then someone walks in on another hallway and turns the three-way on. Yeah. And now you have >> energized. >> It's energized, right? So, we want to make sure that we can isolate the power. And often times we could look at a 1900 box cover and the panel will be listed along with the circuit. Yeah. >> Now once we do that then we have to determine how is this customer getting >> their fire inspection. They must have egress emergency backup lighting. It's either going to be a generator or it's going to be batteries. >> Yeah. So we want to make sure that we turn the battery off as well. >> Okay. is uh mainly like uh in lighting do they all have ballasts? >> Not anymore because lighting has evolved, right? Or traditional compact fluorescent fluorescent lighting has a ballast. Now they have drivers. >> Okay. >> So a lot of things are now LED and a little bit of different technology technology as this, but it's still the same. Now, another huge huge tip is never forget that the ceiling grid that we're often working through, right, with the drop ceiling where you can The tip is never use your fingertips to raise up a ceiling grid. Why? Because you leave debris on your fingers. You could be leaving fingerprints. There's nothing worse than finishing a commercial job and your fingerprints or your glove prints. So, I recommend you use your fists, >> okay? As you go up on your ladder, use your fists straight up. Push the ceiling tile up straight up. Try not to break it. A lot of times they're wedged in there. >> Finagle that up. Push that out of the way with your fists. >> Okay. >> And never ever forget that that grid is grounded. >> Oh, okay. >> So, now you're in a ladder. You've stepped up through the ladder. You've pushed up over the tile. Now you've gone up higher because you're trying to identify the lighting circuit. >> Mhm. >> And now your belly or your side could be leaning or touching on a grounded metal grid. >> That makes sense. >> So you could be on a fiberglass ladder. You could have the proper PP clothes on, PPE clothes on, but you still put yourself in peril because you're leaning on the grid. either you don't have the right ladder or you're not working safely because you are having to lean. You might be standing on top of the ladder. We don't do that. So, use the right tools. Remember about the grid is grounded. >> Isolate the circuit. Don't just tape the switches off. >> Okay? >> And always confirm what which fixtures >> have the emergency egress power and make sure that's power off. now. And most importantly, you do it as the owner. >> Why? >> Because you don't want your helper who doesn't have the experience that you do in commercial lighting. >> They don't understand these fundamentals. Okay? >> Their father isn't an electrician talking to their son. >> A lot of things we just take for granted. Hey, I need you to go over there, turn the power off, and replace that fixture or, you know, change that ballast. You walk away. Next thing you know, there's a problem because that person didn't follow these guidelines. Yeah, they take the switch off. They didn't turn the breaker off. >> Okay. >> They did turn the breaker off, but they overlook the emergency circuit that is mandatory in all commercial buildings. >> Okay. Yeah. All right. Is mainly the commercial buildings of 120 208 volt or they uh 277 480 volt? Both. >> Both. >> So the majority in the United States, the standard is a 480 volt >> four-wire system. >> Mhm. >> Right. >> Okay. >> Brown, orange, yellow, gray. Yeah. >> Right. >> Then what happens that you cannot use 277 volt for a standard receptacle. Yeah. What do we need to do? We need to put in a deltay dry type transformer throughout the facility where needed. Oh, we're going to tap off the 480 volt with a circuit breaker that's going to feed a transformer that's going to step that power down to 12208. >> Okay. Okay. >> Right. And those 120 is what we use to feed our receptacles. >> All right, that makes sense cuz I was in this commercial warehouse and I see these things on the wall and I was wondering what they were, but they're transformers. That's what it is. >> Yeah. The gray those gray enclosures. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every every place has to have that. Now, some smaller industrial facilities >> will bring in 120 208 automatically from the utility company. Okay. Right. So, they're they don't have the ability to do 480. They're at a disadvantage. >> Okay. >> Right. Because their voltage is lower, their current is higher, their services need to be more beefier. M. >> So, it's always better to use the highest voltage for the most efficiency and the least voltage drop. >> That makes a lot of sense. All right. Thanks, Dan. [Music]