The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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42 SEPTEMBER 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com HVAC/ HYDRONICS I would like to personally thank all of you that have written, sent e-mails and approached me at seminars about how great it would be to see the boys at B&B Mechanical again. These guys have reached a point where they have become legends and to see the boys back at work again would be nice. I will tell you honestly that the compli- ments are flattering and I also have missed their exploits as much as you have. The problem is we retired Bruce and moved Bubba to the local Fire Department. We've dusted off and updated an old article and so we're going to go back on one of their favorite adventures for now and I'm working on a new job (article) from the past too! By the way Bruce is enjoying his retirement and is having a great time, fishing, golfing and enjoying traveling, in other words enjoying his well-deserved departure from the job scene. Bubba's still doing a little burner work on the side and has just made Lieutenant and is now the head guy on burner inspections, my how things change. This article will take us back again to those great guys at B&B Mechanical. 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 can't beat interrupted ignition and that burner's been running great since I put it in 20, no, 24 years ago." "We just wanted to up-grade it, Unk, so we put in a new solid-state job, that's all. We didn't eliminate your inter- rupted 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 as he goes for another cup of coffee. Do you have any idea what the prob- lem 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. I talk to a lot of people in this industry about things most of you wouldn't bother talk- ing about. Lately, I hear a lot about a particular problem that always leads us back to the same thing. That is sim- ply, grounding. Improper grounding or non-existent grounding of electrical equipment doesn't work. Sometimes it can injure or even kill. When we did legal work we were very busy with grounding issues, including personal injuries. It was not surpris- ing, but always very sad to me. I've been fully aware of the dangers of grounding for a long time having something most Solid Ground BY GEORGE LANTHIER* Figure 1