Just came from a site in a small industrial park. I was called because the gas heater wasn't working, and the heater guy had said 'it was an electrical problem.'
What I found was a heater/fan unit without power. A red and a black wire ran to the panel, where the black was landed on the 'neutral' bus, and the red was capped off.
I found numerous runs of romex, extension cord, and zip cord running to the panel. Some 50A breakers had #12; two 20# had #8. Sone #4 was disconnected.
"Handy boxes" were everywhere. Almost all were missing covers, most were missing knock-outs, and the use of fittings was hit-or-miss.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, service turned out to be 240/120 Delta. That is, one leg (in this case, the third "blue" leg) is 208- and it was feeding some receptacles!
Where some of these 208 "outlets" had been, the device had been cut off, and the wires left hanging.
Spoke to the landlord, and my instructions are to "get the heat working, and disconnect anything illegal." I told him that the heat would be the only thing left working. My only concern is just how difficult I make it to re-connect!
