We’ll Leave the Light on for Ya?

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Turns out that Beyonce’s performance was not the reason for the Superdome’s 34-minute power outage during the Super Bowl. Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., took the fall for the Super Bowl power failure at the Superdome. Officials say that the cause was a faulty device that had been installed in its switching gear and designed to prevent a failure of electric cables leading to the stadium.

During that 34-minute power outage at the Superbowl, many viewers wondered if the toilets continued to operate for the thousands of fans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Yes, thankfully, they did.

But did you know that a Superdome maintenance supervisor is the unsung hero of the day?

When the Superdome was undergoing renovations in 2011, the stadium's planning department could easily see the advantages of purchasing vitreous china fixtures for the restrooms from Sloan, plus sensor-activated, hardwired Royal® 111 ES-S flushometers. Shortly after putting in the plumbing order, however, the maintenance supervisor voiced his concern that a power outage could leave the flush valves unusable, which would be an unacceptable problem in such a large public facility.

Fortunately, Sloan had recently introduced a TMO (true mechanical override) function, which enables the electronic flush valve to operate manually when there is no power. The manual override was so important to the Superdome that they changed their order from standard ES-S valves to the new TMO units.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So thanks to one maintenance supervisor who knew about Sloan's new TMO function–and who was wise enough to foresee the possibility of a power outage–the Superdome toilets worked just fine during the Super Bowl.

Here are a few facts about the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which was renovated and reopened in June 2011:
• Superior Products, Gonzales, La., specified Sloan vitreous china urinal and water closet fixtures with sensor-activated flush valves for the restrooms.
• Gallo Mechanical in Metairie, La., handled all the plumbing and HVAC upgrades and repairs for the stadium, which has 125 million square feet of interior space.
• Restrooms in Champions Square, an open-air venue next to the Superdome, have 0.25 gpf Sloan High-Efficiency Urinals and 1.28 gpf High-Efficiency Toilets.
• In Benson Towers, an adjacent 20-story office tower owned by New Orleans Saints’ owner Tom Benson, the restrooms also have Sloan vitreous china fixtures along with battery-powered G2 Optima Plus® flushometers for the 0.25 gpf HEUs and 1.28 gpf HETs.
• Altogether, these facilities have installed close to 600 Sloan fixtures and flush valves.

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