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#109960 01/04/06 11:39 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,682
Likes: 3
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Here are 2 photos of FPE equipment located in a recess next to a fireplace.

Perhaps FPE means Fire Place Equipment? A realtor called me to get a quote on a service upgrade, I passed, but found the photos to be funny.

- Jim M
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#109961 01/04/06 11:43 PM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69
W
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At least if it catches fire it'll be in the right place well sort of. They counld just use the picture thats under it to cover it up.

[This message has been edited by wizzie electric (edited 01-04-2006).]


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#109962 01/05/06 12:47 AM
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,691
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Any reason why the spare screw-plug fuses lying on top of the meter cabinet?

#109963 01/05/06 11:02 AM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69
W
Member
ya everything is breakers, I dont see any fuse panels.

[This message has been edited by wizzie electric (edited 01-05-2006).]


Thanks.
#109964 01/05/06 11:51 AM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 349
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Probably just forgot to clean up and throw the old fuses away when this work was done. Makes you wonder.

Any idea what's behind the picture covering the lower recess?

Radar


There are 10 types of people. Those who know binary, and those who don't.
#109965 01/05/06 01:18 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,438
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The more I look at this, the more I think this is a basement that someone decided to finish and put the brickwork out and infront of that panel and stuff... It'd be kinda rare for a utility to give a meter location in your living room [Linked Image] (at least here it would be [Linked Image] )

there appears not to be any type of main OCPD in/on that FPE panel, so the "six throws or less" rule is right out the window.. dangling unsupported NM's, The SER doesnt seem to have any support on it either, but I can't tell for sure....

Maybe bricking around all this mess wasn't such a bad idea after all.... as long as it vents to the outside, it may likely keep this house standing [Linked Image]

PS Any idea what the 2P Square D QO is for in the top of the opening? It's showing tripped.

#109966 01/05/06 09:24 PM
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 141
C
Member
My aging eyes must be really going bad but what is all that black coily looking gook stuff in the bottom.

It also looks to me like someone might have lit a fire in the fireplace below judging from the black stringy stuff hanging in there and the black look of the cable between the meter and the panelboard. If the stringy looking stuff is spider webs covered with unburned carbon from a fire, I think a lot of very nice semiconductive paths might have an opportunity to occur with the attendant "carbon resistor" effect happening. What would the wattage rating of that kind of "resistor" be?

Hope the owners fire insurance is paid up.

#109967 01/05/06 10:14 PM
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 288
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It'd be kinda rare for a utility to give a meter location in your living room.

Actually, I'm surprised to see indoor metering on any single-family residence (I'm correct in my assumption, right?) after the mid-'30s, when meters and enclosures were made weatherproof.

As to the six-throws rule, in my area, 12-circuit FPE main-lug panels are very common as service equipment. They nearly always have more than six throws, and although I don't know when this might have been legal, it was certainly approved throughout the '70s here.

#109968 01/05/06 10:21 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 466
Likes: 1
J
Member
The black appeared to be a tar based waterproofing spread on the inside of the cinder block foundation. I think the conductive paths were spider webs.

The recess was about 16" deep.

The panel was supposed to be relocated near the red curtains on the right side of the photo.

I don't think any circuits were labeled so I don't know what the tripped breaker fed.

Like Randy I think that this was installed after the meter and panel were already approved. The SE between the panel and meter was not strapped, but I don't remember if the incoming line was strapped or not.


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