ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Can't get the Cover on, and Gas Line in the way!

Call the gas supplier, I almost would bet they would have something to say about it, here in PG&E territory they would. That gas connector seems to go around the top of the panel.

We haven't Americanized Alan enough yet! In British English, "gas tap" can be used to mean a valve like this one rather than a place where one actually taps the supply.

I noticed the opening above the panel as well. Could somebody have cut a length of gas pipe out and bridged it with the flexible to make room (such as it is) for the electrical panel?

pauluk, Yes, that's exactly what they did. I'd guess that the panel was "in the way," so they went around it with the flex. If you look towards the left side you can see a little of it peeking through.

Sorry Walrus; we call them 'gas taps', you call them 'valves'. [ Our bath tap = your faucet.]

At least you could have a very short grounding wire from the gas line to the panel... :-) If code permits or wants it. Are circuit breakers gas tight? If a leak develops and fills the panel with a bit of gas, and then someone overloads a circuit, and breaker opens with a spark inside it, and if it's not gas tight..... :-(

At our local community theater, there are five 30a. Square D breakers which we use to switch on/off the marquee lights on the front of the building (neon tube transformers use a LOT of current). I can observe these breakers produce a small internal spark - I assume from the contacts separating. It seems reasonable that the same thing would happen (maybe greater) if a breaker trips under some type of fault condition.

In the subject discussion above, the answer would be...BOOM!!

Mike (mamills)

Yes Mike, I've also seen this occur too.
I've reset breakers on to a fault before and witnessed things like a blue flame (as well as sparks) shoot out of them.
Now, this is assuming that the circuit breaker is properly matched to the PSCC of the service, I've seen under-rated breakers literally dis-integrate when asked to interrupt fault currents above their design rating.
Bear in mind, as PoCo wiring is upgraded, fault currents get higher because of larger conductors and transformers, people never seem to think that maybe the CB's in the panel might need an upgrade as well to cope with the extra PSCC.

{Edit:Look at them bare bits of busbar in the bottom of the panel, I would sort of think that these would be a real risk of explosion if someone dropped a metal tool amongst them, is there no requirement to shroud live terminals in a panel in the US, regardless of wether the cover is on it or not?)

Mike: (Trumpy)
No, there are no requirements to shield buss within panels, other than the panel cover. Installing blanks in the cover face for KO's is required (or 'spare' CB's); as well as closing any unused opening (KO's)

I don't know about New Zealand Mike, but you'd notice how all the new panels here now have shrouded breaker terminals, covers clipped over busbars, and so on. The North American units are much more how ours looked 30 years ago in this respect.

In fact we seem to be getting carried away to the point that no exposed, live screw/busbar can be touched easily even when the front panel is removed, and some people who should know better are even trying to put fault codes on inspection reports for old panels which don't have the shrouding. Despite the overall increased of shrouding internally, there is still nothing in the Regs. here which requires it.

I know a friend who works for a distributer of Square D and other electrical products, and I emailed him these pictures and a link to this thread. He showed it to some of his co-workers, one said that he thought that he had seen it all before this...