madpenguin
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Greets all. This might get a little complicated trying to explain but I'll do my best...
I live in an old house that is split up into 4 units. The service panels are in pretty bad shape IMO. 3 units have been upgraded with newer panels but one unit still has a circa 1920's "lever" disconnect with a similar era subpanel tied onto that, both use fuses. Knob and Tube wiring throughout the entire house (which has been overfused for MANY years). Pretty scary. The wire sheathing cracks if you look at it wrong. The old setup still has 30amp fuses in it with all 14 gauge K&T tied in...
Anyway... The 3 new panels are main lugs that are fed straight from the quad meter box outside. No disconnects any where. In one of the new panels the 2 hot legs go into a 60 amp double pole breaker that serves as the main (note that there are no lugs in this box except for the neutral bus). The other 2 new panels have no "main" at all. They are straight up Main Lug LC's with just a couple individual branch circuits on the hot bus.
What are your guys' thought's on this? Doesn't seem legal by any stretch of the imagination and more importantly, is questionable safety wise. What is to stop someone from running space heaters on every circuit? There's no main to trip so it seems like the SE cable might heat up pretty good. I get a little worried when I go to sleep at night. Especially being winter with the furnaces running and possible space heaters, fridge's, microwaves, toasters, et. all...
The old cloth wrapped SE cable coming from the meters looks VERY thin. Looks like 10 gauge solid AL but could be 8.. Dunno.
The one new panel that has the 60 amp "main"... It works in the fact that you can kill power to the hot bus but I'm not sure how it's supposed to act as a real main breaker since it's being "backfed"... Correct? Pull more than 60 amps on that unit and it's not going to trip or will it? Power is coming into the breaker, not going out...
A little confused on that one. Any and all thoughts would be most appreciated.. The reason I ask is that the landlord wants me to whip things into shape since I've stated that the power situation is extremely shoddy. Been doing electrical work for about 3 years. Have rewired 3 houses from the ground up and numerous old work jobs but I don't have too much experience with service panels. I typically leave that stuff for the certified's to do.. Thanks again for any input.
Jon
I live in an old house that is split up into 4 units. The service panels are in pretty bad shape IMO. 3 units have been upgraded with newer panels but one unit still has a circa 1920's "lever" disconnect with a similar era subpanel tied onto that, both use fuses. Knob and Tube wiring throughout the entire house (which has been overfused for MANY years). Pretty scary. The wire sheathing cracks if you look at it wrong. The old setup still has 30amp fuses in it with all 14 gauge K&T tied in...
Anyway... The 3 new panels are main lugs that are fed straight from the quad meter box outside. No disconnects any where. In one of the new panels the 2 hot legs go into a 60 amp double pole breaker that serves as the main (note that there are no lugs in this box except for the neutral bus). The other 2 new panels have no "main" at all. They are straight up Main Lug LC's with just a couple individual branch circuits on the hot bus.
What are your guys' thought's on this? Doesn't seem legal by any stretch of the imagination and more importantly, is questionable safety wise. What is to stop someone from running space heaters on every circuit? There's no main to trip so it seems like the SE cable might heat up pretty good. I get a little worried when I go to sleep at night. Especially being winter with the furnaces running and possible space heaters, fridge's, microwaves, toasters, et. all...
The old cloth wrapped SE cable coming from the meters looks VERY thin. Looks like 10 gauge solid AL but could be 8.. Dunno.
The one new panel that has the 60 amp "main"... It works in the fact that you can kill power to the hot bus but I'm not sure how it's supposed to act as a real main breaker since it's being "backfed"... Correct? Pull more than 60 amps on that unit and it's not going to trip or will it? Power is coming into the breaker, not going out...
A little confused on that one. Any and all thoughts would be most appreciated.. The reason I ask is that the landlord wants me to whip things into shape since I've stated that the power situation is extremely shoddy. Been doing electrical work for about 3 years. Have rewired 3 houses from the ground up and numerous old work jobs but I don't have too much experience with service panels. I typically leave that stuff for the certified's to do.. Thanks again for any input.
Jon