BY GEORGE LANTHIER

I ’ m amazed that people still comment to me about my fictional characters Bruce and Bubba . This article takes us back again to those great guys at B & B Mechanical . I would like to personally thank all of you that have written e-mails and approached me at seminars about how great it is to see the boys back at work . I will honestly tell you that the compliments are flattering and I also have missed their exploits as much as you have and , as I say on the Internet , that ’ s a fact !

It ’ s a very cold morning and the guys are trying to get warm by drinking coffee and watching Bubba ’ s attempts to get the burner going in the shop .

“ I can ’ t believe that on one of the coldest days of the year we have no heat here and no customers are calling ; it ’ s amazing ,” said Bruce .

“ Yeah , isn ’ t that something ‘ Unk ’, and we just changed this control last night before going home ,” whines Bubba .

“ I don ’ t know why you had to change it ,” said Bruce . “ The burner was running fine and I still like my old controls . You just

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’ t beat interrupted ignition and that burner ’ s been running great since I put it in twenty , no , twenty-four , years ago .”

“ We just wanted to up-grade it , ‘ Unk ’, so we put in a new solidstate job , that ’ s all . We didn ’ t eliminate your interrupted ignition . Geez , come to think of it , we even added an oil valve and picked up the pre-purge and post-purge you ’ re so fond of . I guess that ’ s what you get for trying to do the right thing ,” said Bubba , going for another cup of coffee .

Do you have any idea what the problem may be ? Well , it could be several things , no doubt about that . But it could also be several problems all related to the same basic cause , improper grounding of the electrical components . Talking to a lot of people in this industry , I sadly hear a lot about a particular problem that always leads us back to the same thing . That is simply , grounding . Improper grounding or non-existent grounding of electrical equipment . Sometimes it can injure or even kill .

I ’ ve been fully aware of the dangers of grounding for a long time because I have had something that many oilheat techs have not had , three years of vocational high school electronics training . After graduation , I worked for RCA in the Defense Systems Division and again the need for grounding safety was pounded into my young head . Next , I went into the United States Air Force where I was taught heating and again safety was banged into my head over and over again .

Over years , I ’ ve made part of my living as an expert witness . As an expert I ’ ve been involved with several serious injury cases all caused by improper grounding of everything from boilers and burners to air-conditioning condensers . Some of these techs have been seriously hurt . One may never walk again .

Now , I know many of you are sitting there thinking , damn it , George , proper wiring is the duty of a licensed electrician . Well , you ’ re right , but who put the last heating unit in ? Can you honestly tell that mirror that you ’ ve connected every burner grounding screw ( the little green one ) you ’ ve come across ? Oh , I know , you ’ re thinking , like even some electricians , that you ’ ll pick up your ground through the gas or water line . Ever hear of Teflon tape ? When Dupont first created this stuff , it was for use as an insulator and it works very well as one .

The worse case I ’ ve heard of was a guy injured working on an industrial boiler where the connections to the system and water lines were all done using Teflon tape . It was a beautifully laid out and installed job , but electrically it was an electric chair waiting for its next victim . You just can ’ t keep breaking my second rule and get away with it : “ Assume nothing !”

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Enough on safety , it ’ s

26 NOVEMBER 2023 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www . fueloilnews . com