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[Tim McCulloch]

TJ (Tom) Cornish wrote on Thu, 15 April 2010 10:24

As I mentioned earlier, the only standard is there is no standard. {snip} The dangerous reality is many high-current receptacles are incorrectly wired or not suitable for the purpose at hand, and put you in danger of nuking your stuff and/or hurting yourself or someone else.  Unless you are very comfortable with electrical testing procedures, I would strongly suggest not getting into the distro side of things.  I NEVER, EVER plug into an unknown supply without testing first.  This is doubly true for non-Edison circuits.

Word.

[Jeff Wheeler]

TJ (Tom) Cornish wrote on Thu, 15 April 2010 10:24

Tying into a disconnect requires an electrician.  Cam Loks in my experience can be looked at both ways, depending on the venue.

My understanding is you must be "qualified personnel" to connect to cam-lok because it's not a combination outlet that prevents the conductors from being reversed or the phase legs being connected without the ground or neutral conductors; and also because the cam-lok connectors are not keyed to a specific amp rating, unlike a NEMA receptacle and plug.  I did not realize there was ambiguity in this area.

IIRC Gerry is the in-house guy for his company's events, so the "cozy relationship" is obviously the product of his employer judging the quality of production as adequate for their events given the budget (or lack of budget) that he is allocated.  He said they won't even buy him cases for his gear, so a power distro seems like a hard purchase to justify!

[Gerry Seymour]

Jeff Wheeler wrote on Thu, 15 April 2010 12:02

TJ (Tom) Cornish wrote on Thu, 15 April 2010 10:24 Tying into a disconnect requires an electrician.  Cam Loks in my experience can be looked at both ways, depending on the venue. My understanding is you must be "qualified personnel" to connect to cam-lok because it's not a combination outlet that prevents the conductors from being reversed or the phase legs being connected without the ground or neutral conductors; and also because the cam-lok connectors are not keyed to a specific amp rating, unlike a NEMA receptacle and plug.  I did not realize there was ambiguity in this area. IIRC Gerry is the in-house guy for his company's events, so the "cozy relationship" is obviously the product of his employer judging the quality of production as adequate for their events given the budget (or lack of budget) that he is allocated.  He said they won't even buy him cases for his gear, so a power distro seems like a hard purchase to justify!

Mostly correct, Jeff. They did finally cough up for cases this year, after I showed them the damage (mostly physical) that some of the equipment had taken.

As for the distro cost, if it can offset other costs (such as rental) quickly, then I can get the budget for it. In this case, it looks like budget's not the constraint. I'm not really interested in dealing with the issues already noted, so I'll likely just let the hotel charge their ridiculous fee.

[Tim McCulloch]

Owning a distro won't save money when the facility is actually charging for the power.  Back when hotels made their money from sleeping rooms they gaged revenue in dollars per guest night.  Now they gage revenue in dollars per guest as sleeping room bookings dropped off but meeting & ballroom use continued.  The money had to come from somewhere, and that's when they began to charge for every conceivable thing.

And I feel for you, working for folks that are penny-wise but pound-foolish.

Have fun, good luck.

Tim Mc

[Gerry Seymour]

Tim McCulloch wrote on Thu, 15 April 2010 10:55

In order: 1.  Routine is a matter of what kind of business the hotel normally does.  Some do "events" and others host wedding receptions and simple business meetings.  They are the least likely to "get it."  I was in one of those places last week, but the house electrician found 60 amp service in the kitchen he could tie into; and the second answer is "probably NOT."  High current distros in the USA are typically connected by bare tails into lugs of a safety disconnect switch.  Hotels typically use the oddest connectors that Might Meet Code so the chances of someone having it low.  It's revenue preservation.  Back when I did a lot of ballroom work I carried 4 or 5 oddball connectors just so I'd know the quality of the connector (had a few hotel-provided distros with partially melted connectors). 2.  Yes.  You lack the knowledge and experience and publically state that on the internet.  Honesty is fine but if you ever have an electrical failure (fire, electrocution, etc) problem Google will come back to haunt you. 3.  Yes.  They lock up the access to the disconnect switch or the cover to the 50 amp outlet.  Or they turn it off upstream and when you call to get it turned on, they send an "event coordinator" over to the room with a form to sign, authorizing the charges for power.  While the hotel says they charge for the distro, they are really charging to make a profit.  That's why many hotels charge for regular Edison outlets, too.  Someone from the banquet/sales dept walks through the room and counts the use. You won't escape paying for power.  You seem to have this cozy relationship with your client that is incredibly price sensitive (IIRC).  I'm not sure if you have some spiritual or financial involvement with the client, but if yes or not, the client needs to understand that *everything* has a cost and a price (they aren't the same thing).  In our contracts we specifically make the client responsible for power hook up fees, electricians, generator parking permits (bring your own power and the facility charges you a fee to park the gennie and run cable through their hallways) and everything else that results in additional expense beyond our contracted fee.  We'll make the arrangements but the client puts up the credit card to pay for stuff; or we'll handle those expenses on their behalf for an additional 20% markup and we require advance payment based on estimates. HTH. Tim Mc

Tim - thanks for the reality check on this. Liability and cost aside, it just sound like more complication than I'd care to deal with, in any case.

I've used some really scary "distro's" in hotels, which was my main reason for considering this route. I've been presented with un-protected tie-ins that led to exposed breakers on the "distro", with shoddy wiring to the 4-gang boxes. Reminds me of the wiring in this house before we had it all replaced.

[Gerry Seymour]

Tim McCulloch wrote on Thu, 15 April 2010 12:24

And I feel for you, working for folks that are penny-wise but pound-foolish.

They're learning. Their expectations were improperly set by the guy who originally built the rig. He just kept piecing it together from mis-matched (and cheap) components. The folks here in the Lounge have helped me make some key, low-cost purchases of pro-grade bits to fill gaps in the rig. As I do that, the powers-that-be are starting to understand the problems with the original approach.

[Jeff Wheeler]

If I were you, I would choose not to own a distro until you can't avoid it.  At least any power problems you have are easily and correctly blamed on venues right now.  But if you have them buy a distro and then the hotel promised there would be a 14-50R outlet but it's wired wrong or they hit you with a hidden fee to turn on the circuit breaker, or what the hotel event person thought was a 14-50R is really something else ... it will be hard to explain that to your bosses.  It's really easy to explain to them that you asked for X number of 20A Edison circuits and they were not supplied as promised.

[Gerry Seymour]

Blame always falls on the venue, unless I claim it. The folks I work with know my attention to detail, and know that I claim all faults that are mine. It's an odd relationship, but I never have to worry about that sort of thing.

Nonetheless, the other side of your statement is probably more pertinent: any power issues become the hotel's problem to solve for us. If the distro were mine, they can clain the issue isn't their power, but my distro. Simpler if it's all theirs.