Hi,
As of today, mechanical maintenance on the furnace and space heater in CCL / Sudo has completed.
The remaining task relating to the furnace specifically is more thoroughly assessing (and potentially improving) the structural integrity of the furnace’s platform — potential impacts / schedule of which is TBD.
The following tasks completed:
A. Furnace in CCL/Sudo (serving disco Rm):
- replacement of blower motor & fuse,
- installation of unit-adjacent service receptacles,
- installation & test of water pump for condensation line,
- replacement of existing air filter with a finer MERV-13-style (equivalent HD-branded version) filter. Note this filter will need to be periodically replaced on a going basis, interval of which is unknown but is dependent on the frequency of use of this heater and is not anticipated to be overly frequent.
- successful test activation of furnace / thermostat. We confirmed the thermostat allows the fan to kick on without the heat if that is desired (to just filter air).
B. Space heater in CCL/Sudo (serving same):
- Successful test / activation,
- Moving its on/off switch from high up in CCL’s BSL over to an accessible height in common area near north entry to CCL / Sudo,
- Replacement of on/off switch with a 1-hr timer switch (thanks to jake for supplying this fixture)
Note: the feasibility of potentially macgyver’ing a MERV-13 air filter onto the space heater (which has no built-in facility for an air filter) was assessed, but determined to be too much of an unknown safety-wise and there is no plan to do this at this time.
C. For both heaters:
- Basic Installation of off-the-shelf smoke/CO and natural gas/CO alarms in a reachable area above and roughly between the furnace and space heater. Ideally these would be placed on the ceiling, but it was determined that the ceiling was not safe to reach without a taller ladder or scaffolding. (If CCL or Sudo desires this, let me know.)
These alarm units should not be considered sufficient for today’s code standards for a commercial space. They are in effect ad-hoc and are intended mainly as being much better than nothing, as was previously the case. By comparison, a ‘one-go, all-go’ monitored, interconnected wireless alarm system (with far more modules) would be the preferred install for this room and the building.
The present alarm install should be seen as a stopgap until community funds are provided to achieve a more standard and expansive commercial detection and notification system in this room and throughout omni.
There will be three distinct alarm patterns for smoke, CO, or natural gas. Please read / redistribute / make an meeting agenda item for identifying the below patterns:
Gas/CO detector - Natural Gas detected:
1/2-second beep, 1/2-second silence, repeating. On A/C power this repeats indefinitely.
During a power outage (on battery power), it it repeats for the first four minutes then changed to every 60 seconds to conserve battery.
Gas/CO detector - CO (carbon monoxide) detected:
4 quick beeps followed by 5 seconds of silence, repeating.
During a power outage, (on battery power), it it repeats for the first four minutes then changed to every 60 seconds to conserve battery.
Gas/CO detector: - Both Natural gas & CO detected: Alarm priority in this unit is for CO. If both are detected, it will only alarm for CO.
Smoke/CO detector - Smoke detected:
Should be 3 long beeps, repeating.
Smoke/CO detector - CO detected:
Should be 4 quick beeps, then a pause, repeating.
Note the gas/co detector is fed by A/C but has a 9V battery backup in event of power outage — If an extended power outage occurs or eventually the 9V will die and the unit will chirp annoyingly until the 9V is replaced. Whereas the smoke/co detector is not wired to A/C, and has an integrated 10-year lithium ion battery, so it is not impacted by power outages and should take a decade to start the ‘replace me’ chirp.
To hush either of these alarms in the event a false positive, unfortunately requires physical proximity, ie a ladder up to the furnace platform.
Thank you to community members Dave A., Theresa H., Patrik, Michael and Sarah for assisting this process.
Best,
David