Background
The Avista Resort Hotel is a family resort in North Myrtle Beach, SC that attracts visitors with its oceanfront location, on-site dining options, pools and lazy river, and other premium amenities. For customer safety and comfort, hotels like Avista are required to maintain a commercial generator under the National Fire Prevention Association 110 Standard for emergency power supply systems.
Maintaining a commercial generator system for a hotel with hundreds of rooms is incredibly important. If an NFPA legally required diesel generator fails to start or shuts down while running during a utility power outage, it can cause any number of dangerous situations. Generator failure may cause elevator passenger entrapment or lead to serious injury or death from the loss of safety lighting in stairwells.
During a scheduled quarterly generator test and inspection, it was discovered that the generator no longer produced any voltage output. For the safety and security of the residents and guests, the generator problem needed to be diagnosed and resolved as soon as possible.
Meeting Challenges
Cooper Electrical Services, the Grand Strand’s leader in commercial generator services, needed to inspect and diagnose the problem. With thorough electrical testing, the Cooper team learned that defective alternator parts caused the generator failure.
A replacement part list and cost-benefit analysis was prepared to help the client determine whether replacement or repair was the best option. Since a new generator was three times the cost of the repair, the owners opted to make repairs and replace the alternator.
Solving Problems
An out of service generator is a liability. Without a generator, the owner is required to provide 24/7 Fire Watch resources for the safety of the residents and guests. In order to expedite the repair and get the lowest possible cost for the client, Cooper Electrical Services compared prices and delivery times between the generator manufacturer and after-market parts specifically engineered for each application.
Once the alternator parts arrived, the Cooper team faced a new challenge: removing the old generator from the hotel roof and installing a new one. Since the hotel elevators did not have rooftop access, the Cooper team faced yet another challenge: how to get the 1,500 lb. alternator off the generator and off of the roof. Blocking off the street and using a crane is an expensive and time consuming option.
To save time and resources, the Cooper team developed a plan to use the service elevator to take the alternator to the top floor, and then use heavy equipment to lift the 1,500 lb. load the remaining 1.5 floors to the rooftop generator room. This plan saved both money and time, considering a crane would require S.C. DOT permission and highway closure.
Once the new alternator was installed, NFPA 110 Certification Testing was completed and follow-up testing and maintenance was scheduled.
Benefits
The benefits of this project are very clear. The NFPA 110 Legally Required Generator is back in service and the owner’s risks and liabilities are reduced. Additionally, the Maintenance staff no longer had to keep the building under a “Fire Watch” because of generator failure.
Moreover, due to a detailed Repair/Replace Cost analysis, and obtaining the best market prices for the parts needed, Avista was able to save capital resources that can be used for other projects ahead of the popular summer season.
Cooper Electrical Services
Cooper Electrical Services is coastal South Carolina’s premier company for turn-key commercial and residential generator services. A sister company to the long-standing Cooper Mechanical Services, the Cooper brand name is known along the Grand Strand and synonymous with honesty, knowledge, and experience.
To learn more about residential or commercial generator sales, installation, maintenance, and repairs, Call Cooper today.