On top of its donation of $100,000 in services and materials to help restore power in tornado-ravaged neighborhoods in North St. Louis, NECA contractor ArchKey Solutions is helping in other ways. Earlier this summer, ArchKey’s companywide Tornado Relief Drive raised $11,591.12 in donations. Donations were collected at the ArchKey Sachs office, where team members and interns delivered and unpacked seven pallets of donated items at the Urban League. They then assembled hundreds of toiletry bags for families who have been displaced.

Home insurance is becoming an increasingly burdensome expense and one of the contributors is aging electrical panels. NECA contractor Grasser Electric details the impact in its latest blog. “An older home often comes with an older electrical panel. If your panel is more than 30 years old, it was built for a time with far fewer electrical demands.  Think about it. Your home now powers multiple large screens, computers, kitchen gadgets, and charging stations. An old panel was never designed to handle that kind of load.” Home insurers see the antiquated panels as potential fire hazards and may adjust your premium higher.  Learn more.

NECA contractor MidStates Energy delves into the importance of highly complex industrial maintenance issues in its latest blog on isophase bus ducts which are designed to efficiently carry thousands of amps to power systems.  They are essential in power plants, heavy manufacturing facilities, data centers and utility substations. But they also “face unique stress factors, including:

·         High continuous current loads

·         Environmental exposure (heat, humidity, contaminants)

·         Thermal cycling and vibration

·         Insulation aging and seal degradation

Without a targeted maintenance plan, issues like insulation failure, moisture ingress, or joint resistance can lead to catastrophic outages and unplanned downtime.” Learn more.