Apartment Safety Measures

Safety measures of electromechanical equipment and services

Your home is a place where you should feel safe and protected, yet sometimes untoward accidents may happen which can leave a permanent scar in your life. Although accidents cannot be eliminated permanently from your lives, you can take adequate safety measures to make your home a safe haven. Here are some apartment safety tips related to generator, substation room, and lift to help you secure your home and the lives of your loved ones.

Generator room

Most apartments today have generator back up for 24 hrs uninterrupted power supply. There are some important safety measures for running the generator smoothly and prevent untoward accidents.

1. The generator room should be well-ventilated to ensure unobstructed air flow which will help in emission of exhaust fumes and keep the generator cool. When a generator is turned on, heat is released from generator and alternator.  60% of this energy is converted to electrical power and 40% of the heat is released as exhaust fumes which contain detrimental gas like carbon monoxide. Therefore, the area where generator is placed must be adequately ventilated to prevent overheating.
2. Before you buy a generator, you also need to know the connecting load. The connecting load determines the generator power capacity. For example, say for your apartment building, you need 80 KVA power to run electrical equipment, appliances and so on but you bought a generator with 72 KVA. This can cause overload and either burst the generator or ruin your electrical equipment and appliances.
3. A third precautionary step is to never keep the generator in open space as it can be vulnerable outdoors. For apartment safety, you should always have it installed indoors. If you have trouble with the generator noise, you can create a canopy to buffer the sound.
4. You also need to check the generator fuel periodically. For instance, in case your apartment has an auto-starter generator then it will start by itself when power goes out. And if the equipment does not have sufficient fuel at that time, it can prove to be hazardous.
5. Other apartment safety tips for generator include maintaining the generator periodically so that it gives consistent output. You should follow yearly, half-yearly and quarterly maintenance schedule to ensure everything is in order. You should also check before the voltage, power, ampere before starting the generator to know that it is performing consistently. It will help you identify problems at an early stage and allow you to take preventive measures.

Substation room

All apartments have a substation room that needs to have certain precautions to prevent accidents. A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system and transforms voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform other important functions.

1. Substation room should have a certain temperature and adequate ventilation to dissipate heat released from transformers and other equipment. It should be maintained at less than 24° If natural ventilation is not adequate, you should have fans or HVAC units as per your requirement.
2. It’s important to note that the room is not accessible to everyone as it can prove to be hazardous. Safety sign should be hung outside for access control.
3. You should also ensure there is a divider between HT site and LT site of transformer using non-conductive materials, such as wood to prevent being electrocuted. If any accidents occur at HT or LT site, then load break switch of substation room needs to be turned off.
4. The demand factor is another important parameter that needs to be calculated, it measures load of every electrical equipment, appliance etc. If the substation room does not meet the required criteria for an apartment building, then during short circuits, there can be fire hazards.
5. You should also note that the substation cable, circuit breaker, transformer oil, etc are in compliance with codes.
6. You should also ensure synchronization of power transfer between generator and substation.
7. For smooth operation of generator and substation, magnetic conductor can be used apartment unit
8. You should periodically check and maintain the substation equipment at least once in every 5 year to ensure smooth operation.
9. For any calamity, your building should have proper fire protection system, such as fire extinguisher (oil type), fire hydrants, etc in apartment buildings.

Lift Maintenance

Most modern apartments come with lifts today to add comfort and convenience to its apartment residents. Depending on apartment units, the capacity of lift needs to be determined for proper functioning. Usually, most developer companies use one 8 passenger lift for apartment building having 15 units. For luxury apartments or apartment building having more than 15 units, a stretcher lift is also incorporated in apartment facilities.

For avoiding lift hazards, the following parameters need to be checked for proper functioning of the lift:

1. Speed governor
2. Photo sensor
3. Emergency landing device to prevent being stuck in lifts.
4. Auto-charger which functions as generator backup when electricity goes out for 1 hour.
5. Alarm buzzer which notifies people in machine room, guard room in case of emergency
6. Exhaust fan to prevent suffocation inside the lift.
7. Inbuilt intercom to communicate outside in case of emergencies or other situations
8. Overload sensor to notify when lift is overloaded to prevent untoward hazards
9. Buffer underneath the lift machine to absorb speedy
10. Variable voltage variable frequency “VVVF” device to regulate voltage around 400 +/- 10% for smooth operation.
11. Door lock opening key to prevent being stuck in lifts.
12. Auto-call cancellation provision for smooth functioning of lift.
13. Periodic maintenance of lift to be carried out once every 1 month.
14. Lift machine room needs to have temperature control below 24°C with exhaust fan or AC if required.
15. When using lifts, there should an interval every 6 hours and after 12 hours it is mandatory so that the machine is not overrun.
16. Lightning arrester to reduce excessive voltage and prevent hazards during thunder and lightning.

If you are a first-time home buyer or a current homeowner, practice these apartment maintenance tips in your apartment building. With these apartment safety measures, you can ensure your apartment facilities are functioning smoothly and have a safe home where accidents are at bay.