OK So I'm called by a member of my church to come quick and look at something her general contractor said might be dangerous. I get myself down there and the General shows me the service equipment he is concerned about.
It is a one hundred fifty ampere Square D Homeline panel that was installed as a bootleg upgrade. The Neutral of the Service Entry Cable came up short the way the Bozo ran it so he spliced it by adding on a short length of copper number six to the Aluminum SEC conductor and clamping them together using a
Romex connector. So we have copper and aluminum spliced by clamping in a mild steel cable clamp.
The Grounding Electrode Conductor was never reconnected to the replacement panel and when the original installation that this monstrosity replaced was done supplemental electrodes were not required so of course Bozo didn't think to bring it up to the code in effect at the time of his work.
{I guess I should have stopped that sentence with a period after the word think.} So there is no grounding connection of any kind on the premise.
The service Entry Conductors were never up sized so their actual ampacity is probably less than one hundred amperes.
{Since this lady is only trying to get out of this house with a whole skin I will probably install a back fed breaker, of the appropriate size for the service conductors, anchored under a breaker tie down kit and let it eat.} The dryer circuit is a converted range / stove / cooker branch circuit run as old style BX armored cable containing number six conductors. I guess he must have realized that the old style BX was not suitable for a reliable ground because he never bothered to connect the cable to the panel cabinet he just ran the conductors in through a knock out and jammed as many strands as he could make fit onto the thirty ampere breaker.
{Remedy would be to replace the cable with number ten, 3CwG Romex and connect and terminate it correctly.} Several of the fourteen gauge branch circuits originate from thirty ampere single pole breakers.
Some of the furnace duct work is tied to AC cable in the basement ceiling which has pulled the AC cable out of the connectors breaking what little grounding continuity that it had.
{All I feel I can do is eliminate the obvious hazards and render the existing installation basically safe. In a sense I will revert the installation back to it's original ampacity, terminate everything properly, and correct the over sizing of the branch circuit breakers, and then walk away quietly.} I'm wondering if I should remove the one hundred fifty ampere main breaker to prevent the new owners from reconnecting the old Service Entry Conductors to it.
I have seen worse hack jobs then this one but nothing recently. I'll bet that those of you who work as inspectors see this kind of garbage all the time.
