ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Federal Pacific circuit breakers

seems to be our call....

Just got a call today from the local Post Office, they want simply three sets of floods on motion sensors on various sides of the building.

"No problem, let me see your panel to see what brand of breaker I need"

Here it is:



And working clearances is a problem...



So, the dilemna is... leave the panel or get into a working clearances problem with replacing it... (No disco)...

What to do?

[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 03-06-2002).]

sparky66wv,
I personally would try to convince them to change the panel. The work involved in relocating the panel would probably merit a grandfathering. See if an AHJ agrees.

Failed to mention that this Post Office was built in 1986 and I'm a little suspicious of the "newness" of the FPE panel installed...

When did they quit selling the stabloks?

LOL!
Great example of the industry's hold Virg...

now turn yer head & cough....
:ceek:

I'm president of my coop building. All 15 units have Federal Pacific panels. We have recently been made aware of their potential hazards and are looking into changing the panels.
However, people are asking if it would be safe enough to just replace the circuit breakers rather than paying for new panels? I've sometimes heard the circuit breakers are expensive, but seem to have found a rather inexpensive fit online at
www.connecticut-electric.com/breaker.asp

So the question is twofold:
-are these replacement parts any good?
-will replacing the breakers fix the safety issue?

philwhosis;
An additional Q would also be if the AHJ deems it necessary to update the breakers serving bedroom 'oulets' to AFCI's.
This then would introduce the need for after-market Fed-Pac AFCI's which may be hard to find.

I have a personal experiance with FP breakers. 30A clothes dryer circuit shorted inside the recepticle, eventually started to arc and caught fire. FP breaker never tripped. If someone hadn't been at home, I guess house would have burned down. (Actually, we never leave house with dryer running, but you get the point...)

I am not sure how to post a link here but if you go to the following address it will show all of the Stab-Lok breakers currently made including Arc-Fault breakers. http://www.schneider-electric.ca/www/ecat/documents/b_section.pdf

I work in a campus that is filled with federal pacific breakers and panels.

We have thousands of them.

50% of the time the breaker will not trip on over current. The breaker will make a humming sound but it will hold strong w/o tripping.

My theory at first was the lack of exercise on these breakers as they are in a state facility with little to zero preventative maintenance.

But after hearing all of these complaints I'm not so sure it isn't the breakers that aren't the culprit.