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Joined: Oct 2000
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Here are some pictures I took while on vacation in Minnesota. The house was built in 1927. The service was upgraded, I think, in the late '50s-early '60s.

Look at the second photo, and what do you see?

--yaktx
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

Joined: Jul 2004
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Judging by the 'keyhole' mounting hole there, the panel was installed upside down. Neat work though. Are (or were) yellow phase conductors usual for some reason in the area, or is it a case of 'what the guy had on the van'.

I'd have been a little worried about 'yellowing' of the white wires causing phase and neutral to appear similar.

Joined: Oct 2005
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Double tapping on the left side?

Joined: Feb 2005
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The cover is missing?

Joined: Mar 2001
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A second view of the first picture?

Joined: Feb 2003
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According to the NEC, it is perfectly acceptable to use whatever color you have on the truck for an ungrounded conductor, as long as it is not white, gray, or green. There is an additional restriction on orange, which must be and may only be used on the 208V-to-ground leg of a four-wire delta, if such a system exists on the premises.

Many jurisdictions, including my own, are more restrictive.

Yes, there is double-lugging going on in here. That might have been legal at the time.

For the ungrounded branch circuit conductors, I see three colors: yellow, orange, purple, and another color which is debatable. Is it blue? Gray? Green? My wife voted for teal. It looked green enough to me that I wouldn't have used it for a phase.

The question is, if it is green: Is this grandfathered?

Joined: Mar 2001
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The installed fuses look like they say "type S" (fusestat), but the spares sitting on top are standard edison based. They better get some proper spares.


Steve
Joined: Jun 2005
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Yaktx wrote:
There is an additional restriction on orange, which must be and may only be used on the 208V-to-ground leg of a four-wire delta, if such a system exists on the premises.
Orange is not forbidden to be on other phases and systems. 480V systems are typically Brown, Orange, Yellow.

You could mark all three conductors orange in a midpoint-grounded delta system. It just wouldn't be very helpful. [Linked Image]


-George
Joined: Feb 2003
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Every panel with Type S adapters has a few Edison base fuses laying around nearby. People buy the wrong thing, and never get around to getting rid of it once they figure out it won't fit.

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Just George wrote: "You could mark all three conductors orange in a midpoint-grounded delta system. It just wouldn't be very helpful."

Well, I just looked it up, and my previous statement was not exactly correct. 110.15 states that "only the conductor or busbar having the higher phase voltage to ground shall be durably and permanently marked by an outer finish that is orange in color or by other effective means". I thought I remembered learning that this meant orange couldn't be used anywhere else in the building, but it says only within the system.

Orange is typically used in 480V systems, because buildings with such systems rarely if ever also have a four-wire delta system, and therefore there is no potential for confusion.

Here in my area, orange is absolutely forbidden except in this one area of application. Around here this type of service is fairly common, in contrast to some areas.

If you have a single-phase service, and you are in an area with no local restrictions, you may certainly use orange, as seen here.

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