A Few Words About Zoning

Proper zoning and approved plans must be in place prior to getting a building permit

The first step in the process of building the home or small commercial building of your dreams is the piece of property that you will build on.  Whether you already own the parcel or are shopping for the property several things must be considered.

Most cities and counties have zoning ordinances which control how certain pieces of property can be utilized.  The zoning categories may look something like this; single-family residential, multifamily residential, commercial, light industrial, heavy industrial and agricultural.  In addition, the property zoning ordinances may specify building heights, distance from property lines and roads, property access, landscaping, water run off, and more. 

Rural areas are generally less restrictive than urban areas.  However, many counties have instituted minimum size requirements for a property containing one single-family home.  For example a five-acre minimum is common where I live.  Driveway access to rural roads is typically controlled as well.  Township roads are usually the least controlled, next being County roads, and State highways are typically highly regulated.  Our driveway is on a Township Road which made me think that the permit would be easy.  To my surprise the road commissioner denied our first request for a driveway location.  We contested this through the County engineer and persistence finally paid off.  They finally gave up and let us put our driveway wherever we wanted.

In rural areas zoning also covers location of wells and septic systems in relation to each other and to the building.  Many times as property gets annexed into cities existing wells and septic systems fall under grandfather clauses.  Also, special use can fall under a grandfather clause.  Never take for granted that zoning can be changed or that you can obtain a variance for your intended purpose.  We were involved in the purchase of a small rural airport.  During the process of the sale, we found that the special use permit allowing the land to be used as an airport was automatically voided if the land transferred ownership!  Do your homework!  It is possible to purchase a piece of land and not be able to use it for your intended purpose even if that's the purpose it's currently being used for!!

Urban areas present their own set of challenges.  Typically, there are more layers of bureaucracy to deal with and zoning is much more restrictive.  On the upside, there are usually more services in a city then rural areas.  City water and sewer are taken for granted in cities but are nonexistent in rural areas.  Close proximity of fire and police departments helps to lower insurance rates.  If you are building in a city, things such as noise levels and traffic may be important to you.  We had a client who never bothered to notice how busy the road his house was on until he moved in!  Once again, do your homework!  Another word of caution; there are lots in most cities that are not buildable because of changing zoning restrictions and building codes.  Don’t be fooled by the low price of a lot to find that it is not possible (or practical) to build on it. 

Before you can hire an architect, draw up plans and present them to contractors for bidding you must first have a properly zoned parcel to build on.    

Turn-Key Construction on Telecom Sites

Concrete forms for a battery cabinet on a telecom site

 Here we see the beginnings of another turn-key project by Three Phase.  One of the things we are able to provide to our customers is all-inclusive construction services.   This concrete pad will house battery cabinets.  We are doing the excavation work, pouring the pad, providing the electrical work and other necessary items to enable the owner to equip this site with a new uninterrupted power supply. 

Most of our work on these telecom sites revolves around critical power.   Critical power encompasses AC-DC power systems, controls, batteries and wiring.  The electrical trade is a big part of what we do.  But, that’s not all.  The electrical apparatus needs something to sit on, connect to, be supported by and housed in.   So we build little buildings, make custom enclosures, pour concrete pads, add heaters, do siding work, paint walls and more.     

Concrete pad for a battery cabinet on a telecom site

One of the main reasons our customers contract with us is we provide turn-key services for them.  They don’t have to hire an excavator, and a carpenter and a concrete contractor and someone to build a room and and and……    Our customers can hire us and be done.   Our employees are cross trained in multiple vocations enabling us to handle most trades in house.   If a situation arises where we need someone with a specialized license or a particular piece of equipment we can provide the service of contracting with trade specialists.  This takes the burden of hiring and subcontracting off of our customer so they are able to focus on their business.  

The other important aspect of hiring Three Phase for all-inclusive construction services is the benefit of having less traffic on your site.  This is particularly important with little telecom hubs where security is imperative.   

Food Spoilage in a Power Outage

Food Safety is important during a power outage.  

Reducing the temperature at which we store food and beverages increases the safe shelf life of those items.  To accomplish this homes and businesses commonly use refrigerators and freezers.  The ideal temp for a frig is 35°F – 38°F.  Freezers should be below 0°F.   Above 40°F bacteria growth starts to go wild.  

Unless you are operating your refrigerator on an alternative fuel such as propane chances are it’s plugged into the wall.  Thus, your refrigerated food storage is dependent upon the power grid for electricity.  When the power grid goes down so does the refrigerator and freezer. With no electricity things start getting warmer in there.  The warmer the room temperature is outside the frig and the more times you open the door the faster things warm up. 

According to Foodsafety.gov many foods which are thawed and held above 40° F for over 2 hours need to be discarded.  That’s right pitched in the trash. The food is unfit for human consumption and you should throw it away.  Food-born illness from microorganism growth on food can be serious.  Even life threatening!  You can find the full chart for refrigerated food from Foodsafety.gov  here.   

Frozen food is in danger of thawing during a power outage.  Many households and food service businesses purchase frozen meat and entrees in bulk.  Fisherman and hunters have many a freezer full of fish and wild game.   A deer can yield dozens of pounds of healthy venison.   Once frozen food is thawed the same rules apply.  Over 40°F for 2 hours and in the trash it goes.    The USDA has information about frozen food that has thawed here. 

Even if food is deemed safe to consume after a minor power outage, it will suffer in quality.  Less than suitable food storage temperatures will affect the texture and the flavor of the food.  The cost factor of having to throw away pounds and pounds of meat and other food items can be significant. A power outage of less than a day could result in an empty frig.  Beyond that and frozen food starts to become at risk.    

A standby generator can supply electrical power to your refrigerator and freezer in the event of a power outage.  Even the smallest standby generator will provide enough power to keep your refrigerated and frozen food safe.  “Can you connect the refrigerator to the generator?” is perhaps the most common request we get from homeowners and small businesses requiring perishable food storage.    You bet we can!  And depending on the size and model of generator you choose, you will be able to run a lot more.  

Power Outage.... Minor disruption or Major Pain

Residential Standby Generator.  This size is also used for small commercial buildings

Hospitals, police dispatch, fire departments and other life safety related community services commonly protect their building power with standby generators.   Military bases and telecom facilities take things even more seriously with uninterrupted power in the form of battery banks coupled with sizable generators.  Extreme critical services cannot wait the mere seconds it takes for the standby unit it kick in.  

What about the rest of us?   Is a power outage a big deal or a minor interruption?   For some it provides a rare opportunity to 'unplug'.  But, for many if not most of us, it's an unwelcome and even costly interruption.    

Things as simple as filling your car with gas, getting cash from an ATM or even walking through the automatic door opener at your favorite supermarket depend on electricity. Offices & businesses large and small rely on electrical power for everything from lights and computers to the elevator you ride up to the floor where you work in your office building.  If you are a business owner even a couple of hours without power can be costly.  Uncompensated employee time, lost sales, spoiled product....  The list goes on and the longer grid power is down the worse it gets.  

At home the electrical power grid supplies much needed power for lights, appliances, electronics and more.  Refrigerated food spoilage starts in 2 - 4 hours if certain foods being stored above 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  If you have special medical needs that require the use of durable medical equipment a power outage for you can be a health crisis waiting to happen.  CPAP machines, infant apnea monitors and oxygen concentrators are used in homes across America.  Most require electrical power or a reliable DC power source. 

Many homes and businesses are moving toward having backup power available in the event of a power outage.   Backup power systems vary based on the needs of the business or homeowner.   Portable generators can be plugged into permanently installed transfer switches.  For a more permanent solution, there are several manufactures of automatic standby generators. Automatic standby generators sense the loss of grid power and automatically start themselves.   PTO generators are yet another option.   This is commonly seen in agricultural applications where the power take off on a tractor is used to power a generator.  

Having backup power in the event of a power outage is not just for emergency services.   Homes, businesses and farms also need to protect themselves in the event the power grid goes down.  Three Phase can help you choose a generator sized to meet your needs.    

15 Seconds...... That's FAST!

This 100KW diesel generator supplies critical power to a telecom site serving a metro area of 250,000 people.  Internet, telephone and cable TV services are all routed through this site.

If the utility power goes down, this generator can begin providing power within 15 seconds!!

However, 15 seconds is way too long for 911 calls or banking data online transmissions or even your favorite sports team's last minute score to be offline!  In the interim, a large bank of batteries supplies uninterrupted power to the site.

The utility power goes out - power supply switches to the batteries.  Within 15 seconds the standby generator senses the lack of utility power, turns it's self on and takes over power operations for the site.  The lights, or the internet for that matter, never even flicker!  This is what we mean by critical power.  When the equipment must be powered 24/7/365 days a year no matter what.

Not seen in this photo is the connection point for a portable generator to be connected when maintenance or repairs are performed on this generator.  Most of the time we take it for granted that we can connect to the internet, pick up a phone, or watch video on demand cable TV.   Fortunately Three Phase is working behind the scenes to keep the power on and the data flowing.

Lonely Remote Telecom Hub

While assessing the damage in an area recently hit by an EF4 Tornado we came across this telecom hub.    The little building was unharmed by the tornado.  Just a fraction of a mile to the Northeast homes and businesses were totally demolished.  It appeared the portable generator had been placed there "just in case".   It may have been brought in as preparation in the event of a power outage.   The power in the area was out but the portable generator was not hooked up or running. 

It's uncommon to see a hub like this without a critical power standby generator unit installed.  That is, as opposed to the portable unit as seen in the picture.  Also unusual is the lack of security around the building.  It sits in a reasonably safe area, but it still seems strange to not have a fence or other deterrent to crime.   

This is the type of remote facility Three Phase updates and modernizes.   Many of the telecom head-ends and hubs we work on are existing facilities that are upgraded.  Yes, new ones are being built but it’s more likely to see substantial renovations of older outdated facilities.   

Following renovations this facility would have a permanently installed standby generator sitting on a nice concrete pad with an automatic transfer switch.  Also an uninterruptable power supply (battery bank) commonly known as a UPS would be installed.  A fence with a gate and maybe a simple security camera system would be installed. 

Tornados hit Northern Illinois.

Severe tornados  passed through Northern Illinois early this evening.  Click HERE for news and pictures.  Three Phase offices did not sustain any damage.  We have been experiencing high winds and rain with loose outdoor items being tossed about.  But as far as we can see nothing has been damaged.  Our power did momentarily go out.  Luckily, not long enough for the standby generator to kick in.   We have several clients in the hardest hit area and are standing by to provide assistance as needed.

Uninterrupted Power ..... When The Lights Never Go Out!

Many facilities must run 24/7 without interruption.  Our day to day lives depend hospitals, dairies, bakeries, the 911 system, data centers and many others to NEVER shut down.   These businesses and community services are key to our safety and security as well as banking and the food we eat.

Three Phase uses the latest technology to provide critical power infrastructure.  Combinations of batteries, generators, switchgear and monitoring systems protect mission critical facilities in the event grid power is lost.