25 of the Worst Electrical Panels We’ve Ever Seen
August 15, 2022
We’ve all seen them at least a few times throughout our careers and sometimes on a weekly and daily basis. They are chaotic, illegal, illegible and downright dangerous electrical panels that unfortunately still exist in the walls of homes, commercial buildings, hospitals, and schools. They have messy writing, scrawled notes, faded numbering, and impossible tangles of wires (so many wires!) – we’ve seen it all. Here are the 25 worst and most dangerous electrical panels we’ve come across to date.
CriticalAsset eliminates the hassles of facilities asset management, allowing you to effortlessly manage and track all your infrastructure assets and devices in one place, saving you time and money. Sign up for a free trial.
Other posts you may like
-
Facility Management
How Facilities Management is Evolving with New Technology
Facilities management is a rapidly changing field thanks to technological developments over the past couple decades. The evolution has surpassed they physical aspects of the job such as janitorial and HVAC systems, to transform space requirements, building infrastructure and even dictate where a company should be located. These changes have resulted in a vastly different job description for Facility Managers, completely overhauling their day-to-day duties in some cases. New technology and developments to existing tech have created significant opportunities for financial savings and business benefits for companies who require facilities management. They have evolved to change how work is processed and delivered for all property types with newer and smarter work request systems, Smart Building and Cloud technology, and other technology-based solutions. Facility Managers no longer need to wade through inaccurate or disorganized paper records, and they can manage their building’s infrastructure from wireless devices or even their own smartphone or tablet. This enables them to work smarter and more efficiently, seamlessly accessing key building information and dispatching a repair request with a couple of clicks.
Read more -
Facility Management
Technology and the New Standard for Facility Management
Regardless of size, every company has at least some element of facility management. This vital service has a broad impact, integrating multiple disciplines to support the productivity and environment of the workplace, from professional offices to manufacturing facilities. And the global market for facility management is growing; by 2025, the outsourced market for facility management will be worth $1 trillion. In order to capitalize on this, Facility Managers must adhere to a new, integrated system standard for facility management, and recognize how technology affects their success.
Read more -
Hotels & Hospitality
The Essentials of Hotel Preventive Maintenance
Performing preventive maintenance in commercial buildings is key to optimizing facility management and increasing building efficiency. It’s implemented to varying degrees in commercial buildings, from routine cleaning of equipment and replacing filters in HVAC systems, to more complex maintenance and systems testing. Preventive maintenance can not only help buildings save on operational costs, but it can delay or even eliminate equipment and system breakdowns from happening. Engaging in this type of maintenance can improve the experience for tenants and guests, while maximizing equipment lifespas.
Read more -
Uncategorized, Smart Buildings, Facilities Management, Facility Management
What is Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance (PM) is the act of performing regularly scheduled maintenance activities to help prevent unexpected failures in the future. Put simply, it's about fixing things before they break, saving facility managers insane amounts of money, time, and stress. A successful maintenance strategy requires action before a problem occurs. A good preventive maintenance plan involves proper scheduling, keeping records of past inspections and the servicing of equipment, flawless team communication, and easy access to important files and documents. Because of the complexity of maintaining a preventive maintenance schedule for a large amount of equipment, large facilities, or complex buildings, smart companies are switching to the use of preventive maintenance software to systemize preventive maintenance tasks.
What are the Different Types of Preventive Maintenance?
PM is used to anticipate and prevent the breakdown of equipment and should ideally be performed on all items of equipment to prevent age-related failure. Manufacturers often provide recommendations to maintain a piece of equipment but, generally speaking, there are three main types of preventive maintenance task:Mandatory / Non-Mandatory Preventive Maintenance Tasks
Mandatory tasks are those that must be performed as soon as they are due and will often include safety-critical checks. Non-mandatory tasks are still important, but can be delayed without resulting in a critical failure or performance reduction. A preventive maintenance checklist should split tasks into mandatory or non-mandatory.Pyramiding / Non-Pyramiding Preventive Maintenance Tasks
Pyramiding tasks occur when maintenance is set for a due date but is not completed and overlaps with a later scheduled maintenance. In this instance, should a new PM task become due, the previous one is canceled. A cancellation should include a note to explain this and the new task should include the original due date to monitor how overdue the task is. Some companies prefer a non-pyramiding structure, which removes the need to note the original missed task and just takes the new date as the baseline.Inspection and Task Oriented Preventive Maintenance Tasks
Inspection tasks require checks to be made before the results are turned into work orders for planned maintenance to fix any problems that have been discovered. Task oriented PMs allow for minor repairs and adjustments to be made at the time of inspection, reducing the amount of work that needs to be written up as work orders on the inspection sheet.When is Preventive Maintenance Required?
The exact requirement for preventive maintenance will vary depending on the equipment and the operation it is performing. Industry uses standards to help determine schedules for maintenance so that assets do not run to failure. These guidelines will also cover the type of inspection or maintenance that is needed. Ideally, by following guidelines set down by manufacturers or standards, a PM schedule should ensure proactive maintenance rather than having to resort to reactive maintenance when something has already begun to fail. Following this type of predictive maintenance schedule, through tasks such as condition monitoring, requires accurate recording of inspections and servicing against an understanding of the lifespan of a particular piece of equipment. These records will help determine when preventive maintenance is required.Why is it Important?
Preventive maintenance provides companies with several important benefits related to costs, errors, and health and safety. These benefits include:- Improved reliability and life of equipment
- Fewer costly repairs and downtimes associated with unexpected equipment failure
- Fewer errors in operations as a result of equipment working incorrectly
- Reduced health and safety risks
Advantages
Preventive maintenance offers several key advantages for businesses, including:1. Improved Safety
Maintaining assets prevents potentially dangerous failure, mitigating against injury and any associated liability lawsuits.2. Greater Equipment Lifespan
By making sure equipment runs according to guidelines you will help improve the lifespan of the asset. Failing parts reduce the life of your equipment, resulting in expensive repair or replacement.3. Improved Productivity
Statistics show that poor maintenance can reduce a company’s production capacity by 20%. By meeting maintenance requirements, you can prevent this fall in productivity as well as reduce downtime to enable greater efficiency and productivity.4. Reduced Costs
It is estimated that running a piece of equipment to failure can cost ten times as much as performing periodic maintenance. The expense comes as a result of unexpected downtimes and repairs. By understanding the maintenance requirements, you can schedule necessary repairs or part replacements at a suitable time, whether that can be achieved internally or requires an outside professional.5. Reduced Energy Consumption
PM can also have an environmental benefit, since poorly maintained electrical assets tend to use more energy than those that are functioning correctly. Of course, there is also the financial benefit of lower energy bills as a result.Disadvantages
While the advantages of preventive maintenance are clear, there are a few potential challenges associated with a PM schedule:1. Budget Constraints
Some smaller businesses have found that advanced digital maintenance solutions are expensive due to high price software and the cost of hiring external experts. Such budget issues have meant that some consider PM to be a luxury rather than a necessity. Fortunately, this situation has begun to change in recent years as more affordable options are entering the market.2. Additional Resources Required
Completing preventive maintenance may require more staff, parts and time. This requirement means that some companies will focus their preventive maintenance on essential, business-critical assets only.3. Time-Consuming
As mentioned above, PM can be time consuming. Inspection of complicated equipment can be a laborious task, which can lead some to try to skip some routine inspection and maintenance jobs.4. Organizational Difficulties
Organizing your preventive maintenance can be difficult, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of assets to maintain. These difficulties are, however, greatly reduced through the use of a maintenance software program. A dedicated PM program cuts out the need for binders of paper and people remembering what should be done, and when.Examples of Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance requirements differ depending on the equipment being maintained. Example tasks may include cleaning, lubrication, replacing or repairing parts, or even partial or complete overhauls. More obvious examples of preventive maintenance include ensuring production line equipment is working efficiently or heating, ventilation or air conditioning elements are inspected, cleaned and updated. However, other areas in a business also require regular maintenance. Water supplies need to be sanitary, electrical systems have to be safe and compliant with legislation, and doors, lighting and flooring also need to be checked to ensure they are all working correctly and not potentially hazardous.Software
As highlighted above, PM software like CriticalAsset can greatly simplify the coordination of your preventive maintenance tasks. Good PM software will be able to track and store your preventive maintenance requirements and data. This can make it easier to manage work orders, purchases, inspection records and inventories. Preventive maintenance software can prioritize your tasks as well as offering the information required for work to be completed. A PM program can also plan when tasks should take place based on your operational needs, thereby reducing disruption to your work schedules.What is the Difference between Preventive Maintenance and Corrective Maintenance?
Corrective or reactive maintenance is when you wait for a problem to occur before addressing it. Often a small problem will go unnoticed until it becomes a larger issue. This is called the ‘run to failure method.’ However, this type of corrective maintenance isn’t cost effective, as it increases unexpected downtimes, which can incur unplanned expenses. These expenses can go beyond the cost of repairing or replacing equipment to also include lost productivity and overtime labour costs to meet deadlines. A run to failure working model could also cost you reputation if your lack of PM means you cannot complete work on time for a client or customer.What is the Difference between Preventive Maintenance and Predictive Maintenance?
Predictive maintenance (PdM) is an advanced form of preventive maintenance that aims to reduce the number of planned tasks in a PM schedule. PdM analyses data collected from experts, equipment readers, and past experience to determine when specific conditions have been met. Increasingly, Industry 4.0-based Internet of Things feedback is also being used to inform PdM and help further optimize PM requirements. While the cost, complexity and time taken to gather data can prove a barrier to the widespread adoption of PdM, a well-informed system will enable more financially sound decisions to be made for the ongoing maintenance of your assets and equipment. Read more -
Facility Management
Guide to Facility Management
Commercial construction has been a steadily growing industry in the United States for nearly a decade. In 2017 alone, approximately $86.95 billion was spent on commercial building projects. All of those new buildings are also being filled at rapid rates; by the third quarter of 2019, retail space vacancy rates are forecasted to be at 11.4% and vacancy rates for industrial spaces are expected to be at 6.7% mid-to-late this year. With construction projects and new commercial buildings opening all of the time and vacancy rates declining, Facility Managers and facility management teams are more important than ever before.
Read more -
Facility Management
How Facilities Management is Evolving with New Technology
Facilities management is a rapidly changing field thanks to technological developments over the past couple decades. The evolution has surpassed they physical aspects of the job such as janitorial and HVAC systems, to transform space requirements, building infrastructure and even dictate where a company should be located. These changes have resulted in a vastly different job description for Facility Managers, completely overhauling their day-to-day duties in some cases. New technology and developments to existing tech have created significant opportunities for financial savings and business benefits for companies who require facilities management. They have evolved to change how work is processed and delivered for all property types with newer and smarter work request systems, Smart Building and Cloud technology, and other technology-based solutions. Facility Managers no longer need to wade through inaccurate or disorganized paper records, and they can manage their building’s infrastructure from wireless devices or even their own smartphone or tablet. This enables them to work smarter and more efficiently, seamlessly accessing key building information and dispatching a repair request with a couple of clicks.
Read more -
Facility Management
Technology and the New Standard for Facility Management
Regardless of size, every company has at least some element of facility management. This vital service has a broad impact, integrating multiple disciplines to support the productivity and environment of the workplace, from professional offices to manufacturing facilities. And the global market for facility management is growing; by 2025, the outsourced market for facility management will be worth $1 trillion. In order to capitalize on this, Facility Managers must adhere to a new, integrated system standard for facility management, and recognize how technology affects their success.
Read more -
Hotels & Hospitality
The Essentials of Hotel Preventive Maintenance
Performing preventive maintenance in commercial buildings is key to optimizing facility management and increasing building efficiency. It’s implemented to varying degrees in commercial buildings, from routine cleaning of equipment and replacing filters in HVAC systems, to more complex maintenance and systems testing. Preventive maintenance can not only help buildings save on operational costs, but it can delay or even eliminate equipment and system breakdowns from happening. Engaging in this type of maintenance can improve the experience for tenants and guests, while maximizing equipment lifespas.
Read more -
Uncategorized, Smart Buildings, Facilities Management, Facility Management
What is Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance (PM) is the act of performing regularly scheduled maintenance activities to help prevent unexpected failures in the future. Put simply, it's about fixing things before they break, saving facility managers insane amounts of money, time, and stress. A successful maintenance strategy requires action before a problem occurs. A good preventive maintenance plan involves proper scheduling, keeping records of past inspections and the servicing of equipment, flawless team communication, and easy access to important files and documents. Because of the complexity of maintaining a preventive maintenance schedule for a large amount of equipment, large facilities, or complex buildings, smart companies are switching to the use of preventive maintenance software to systemize preventive maintenance tasks.
What are the Different Types of Preventive Maintenance?
PM is used to anticipate and prevent the breakdown of equipment and should ideally be performed on all items of equipment to prevent age-related failure. Manufacturers often provide recommendations to maintain a piece of equipment but, generally speaking, there are three main types of preventive maintenance task:Mandatory / Non-Mandatory Preventive Maintenance Tasks
Mandatory tasks are those that must be performed as soon as they are due and will often include safety-critical checks. Non-mandatory tasks are still important, but can be delayed without resulting in a critical failure or performance reduction. A preventive maintenance checklist should split tasks into mandatory or non-mandatory.Pyramiding / Non-Pyramiding Preventive Maintenance Tasks
Pyramiding tasks occur when maintenance is set for a due date but is not completed and overlaps with a later scheduled maintenance. In this instance, should a new PM task become due, the previous one is canceled. A cancellation should include a note to explain this and the new task should include the original due date to monitor how overdue the task is. Some companies prefer a non-pyramiding structure, which removes the need to note the original missed task and just takes the new date as the baseline.Inspection and Task Oriented Preventive Maintenance Tasks
Inspection tasks require checks to be made before the results are turned into work orders for planned maintenance to fix any problems that have been discovered. Task oriented PMs allow for minor repairs and adjustments to be made at the time of inspection, reducing the amount of work that needs to be written up as work orders on the inspection sheet.When is Preventive Maintenance Required?
The exact requirement for preventive maintenance will vary depending on the equipment and the operation it is performing. Industry uses standards to help determine schedules for maintenance so that assets do not run to failure. These guidelines will also cover the type of inspection or maintenance that is needed. Ideally, by following guidelines set down by manufacturers or standards, a PM schedule should ensure proactive maintenance rather than having to resort to reactive maintenance when something has already begun to fail. Following this type of predictive maintenance schedule, through tasks such as condition monitoring, requires accurate recording of inspections and servicing against an understanding of the lifespan of a particular piece of equipment. These records will help determine when preventive maintenance is required.Why is it Important?
Preventive maintenance provides companies with several important benefits related to costs, errors, and health and safety. These benefits include:- Improved reliability and life of equipment
- Fewer costly repairs and downtimes associated with unexpected equipment failure
- Fewer errors in operations as a result of equipment working incorrectly
- Reduced health and safety risks
Advantages
Preventive maintenance offers several key advantages for businesses, including:1. Improved Safety
Maintaining assets prevents potentially dangerous failure, mitigating against injury and any associated liability lawsuits.2. Greater Equipment Lifespan
By making sure equipment runs according to guidelines you will help improve the lifespan of the asset. Failing parts reduce the life of your equipment, resulting in expensive repair or replacement.3. Improved Productivity
Statistics show that poor maintenance can reduce a company’s production capacity by 20%. By meeting maintenance requirements, you can prevent this fall in productivity as well as reduce downtime to enable greater efficiency and productivity.4. Reduced Costs
It is estimated that running a piece of equipment to failure can cost ten times as much as performing periodic maintenance. The expense comes as a result of unexpected downtimes and repairs. By understanding the maintenance requirements, you can schedule necessary repairs or part replacements at a suitable time, whether that can be achieved internally or requires an outside professional.5. Reduced Energy Consumption
PM can also have an environmental benefit, since poorly maintained electrical assets tend to use more energy than those that are functioning correctly. Of course, there is also the financial benefit of lower energy bills as a result.Disadvantages
While the advantages of preventive maintenance are clear, there are a few potential challenges associated with a PM schedule:1. Budget Constraints
Some smaller businesses have found that advanced digital maintenance solutions are expensive due to high price software and the cost of hiring external experts. Such budget issues have meant that some consider PM to be a luxury rather than a necessity. Fortunately, this situation has begun to change in recent years as more affordable options are entering the market.2. Additional Resources Required
Completing preventive maintenance may require more staff, parts and time. This requirement means that some companies will focus their preventive maintenance on essential, business-critical assets only.3. Time-Consuming
As mentioned above, PM can be time consuming. Inspection of complicated equipment can be a laborious task, which can lead some to try to skip some routine inspection and maintenance jobs.4. Organizational Difficulties
Organizing your preventive maintenance can be difficult, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of assets to maintain. These difficulties are, however, greatly reduced through the use of a maintenance software program. A dedicated PM program cuts out the need for binders of paper and people remembering what should be done, and when.Examples of Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance requirements differ depending on the equipment being maintained. Example tasks may include cleaning, lubrication, replacing or repairing parts, or even partial or complete overhauls. More obvious examples of preventive maintenance include ensuring production line equipment is working efficiently or heating, ventilation or air conditioning elements are inspected, cleaned and updated. However, other areas in a business also require regular maintenance. Water supplies need to be sanitary, electrical systems have to be safe and compliant with legislation, and doors, lighting and flooring also need to be checked to ensure they are all working correctly and not potentially hazardous.Software
As highlighted above, PM software like CriticalAsset can greatly simplify the coordination of your preventive maintenance tasks. Good PM software will be able to track and store your preventive maintenance requirements and data. This can make it easier to manage work orders, purchases, inspection records and inventories. Preventive maintenance software can prioritize your tasks as well as offering the information required for work to be completed. A PM program can also plan when tasks should take place based on your operational needs, thereby reducing disruption to your work schedules.What is the Difference between Preventive Maintenance and Corrective Maintenance?
Corrective or reactive maintenance is when you wait for a problem to occur before addressing it. Often a small problem will go unnoticed until it becomes a larger issue. This is called the ‘run to failure method.’ However, this type of corrective maintenance isn’t cost effective, as it increases unexpected downtimes, which can incur unplanned expenses. These expenses can go beyond the cost of repairing or replacing equipment to also include lost productivity and overtime labour costs to meet deadlines. A run to failure working model could also cost you reputation if your lack of PM means you cannot complete work on time for a client or customer.What is the Difference between Preventive Maintenance and Predictive Maintenance?
Predictive maintenance (PdM) is an advanced form of preventive maintenance that aims to reduce the number of planned tasks in a PM schedule. PdM analyses data collected from experts, equipment readers, and past experience to determine when specific conditions have been met. Increasingly, Industry 4.0-based Internet of Things feedback is also being used to inform PdM and help further optimize PM requirements. While the cost, complexity and time taken to gather data can prove a barrier to the widespread adoption of PdM, a well-informed system will enable more financially sound decisions to be made for the ongoing maintenance of your assets and equipment. Read more -
Facility Management
Guide to Facility Management
Commercial construction has been a steadily growing industry in the United States for nearly a decade. In 2017 alone, approximately $86.95 billion was spent on commercial building projects. All of those new buildings are also being filled at rapid rates; by the third quarter of 2019, retail space vacancy rates are forecasted to be at 11.4% and vacancy rates for industrial spaces are expected to be at 6.7% mid-to-late this year. With construction projects and new commercial buildings opening all of the time and vacancy rates declining, Facility Managers and facility management teams are more important than ever before.
Read more -
Facility Management
How Facilities Management is Evolving with New Technology
Facilities management is a rapidly changing field thanks to technological developments over the past couple decades. The evolution has surpassed they physical aspects of the job such as janitorial and HVAC systems, to transform space requirements, building infrastructure and even dictate where a company should be located. These changes have resulted in a vastly different job description for Facility Managers, completely overhauling their day-to-day duties in some cases. New technology and developments to existing tech have created significant opportunities for financial savings and business benefits for companies who require facilities management. They have evolved to change how work is processed and delivered for all property types with newer and smarter work request systems, Smart Building and Cloud technology, and other technology-based solutions. Facility Managers no longer need to wade through inaccurate or disorganized paper records, and they can manage their building’s infrastructure from wireless devices or even their own smartphone or tablet. This enables them to work smarter and more efficiently, seamlessly accessing key building information and dispatching a repair request with a couple of clicks.
Read more -
Facility Management
Technology and the New Standard for Facility Management
Regardless of size, every company has at least some element of facility management. This vital service has a broad impact, integrating multiple disciplines to support the productivity and environment of the workplace, from professional offices to manufacturing facilities. And the global market for facility management is growing; by 2025, the outsourced market for facility management will be worth $1 trillion. In order to capitalize on this, Facility Managers must adhere to a new, integrated system standard for facility management, and recognize how technology affects their success.
Read more -
Hotels & Hospitality
The Essentials of Hotel Preventive Maintenance
Performing preventive maintenance in commercial buildings is key to optimizing facility management and increasing building efficiency. It’s implemented to varying degrees in commercial buildings, from routine cleaning of equipment and replacing filters in HVAC systems, to more complex maintenance and systems testing. Preventive maintenance can not only help buildings save on operational costs, but it can delay or even eliminate equipment and system breakdowns from happening. Engaging in this type of maintenance can improve the experience for tenants and guests, while maximizing equipment lifespas.
Read more
